In modern synchrotron sources and free-electron lasers, superconducting radio-frequency cavity resonators are able to supply electron bunches with extremely high energy. These resonators are currently constructed of pure niobium. Now an international collaboration has investigated the potential advantages a niobium-tin coating might offer in comparison to pure niobium.
At present, niobium is the material of choice for constructing superconducting radio-frequency cavity resonators. These will be used in projects at the HZBsuch as bERLinPro and BESSY-VSR, but also for free-electron lasers such as the XFEL and LCLS-II. However, a coating of niobium-tin (Nb3Sn) could lead to considerable improvements.
Coatings may save money and energy
Superconducting radio-frequency cavity resonators made of niobium must be operated at 2 Kelvin (-271 degrees Celsius), which requires expensive and complicated cryogenic engineering. In contrast, a coating of Nb3Sn might make it possible to operate resonators at 4 Kelvin instead of 2 Kelvin and possibly withstand higher electromagnetic fields without the superconductivity collapsing. In the future, this could save millions of euros in construction and electricity costs for large accelerators, as the cost of cooling would be substantially lower.
> Read more on the HZB website
Image: The photomontage shows a sample of solid, pure niobium before coating (left), and coated with a thin layer of Nb3Sn (right). Copyright: HZB