Accelerators are powerful tools for science and engines for industry. Superconducting RF is the gold-standard for acceleration of charged particles, but future, continuous-mode accelerators will require very efficient SRF cavities with extremely high quality factors Q₀ to maintain feasible cryogenic cooling loads. Recent results on impurity-doped niobium and on triniobium-tin (Nb₃Sn) coated SRF cavities indicate that these novel surfaces can lead to next-generation SRF cavities. Cornell has produced the first alternative material (Nb₃Sn) SRF cavities ever to clearly outperform traditional solid-niobium cavities in efficiency at usable accelerating fields, reaching usable accelerating fields above 10 MV/m with quality factors Q₀ above 10¹⁰ at 4.2K. In this talk I will give a broad overview of recent advances in fundamental superconducting RF R&D.

Argonne Physics Division Colloquium Schedule