Superconducting Radio-Frequency

SRF cavities are made of different materials, in all shapes and sizes.

The SRF group at Cornell is dedicated to the study of the basic phenomena and application of superconductivity in high frequency conditions. The first use of SRF cavities in a high energy physics accelerator was in 1975 at Cornell's 10 GeV synchrotron. From the beginning, and even now, Cornell's SRF group has been a world-wide leader in the field of RF superconductivity and its application to high energy accelerators and synchrotron light sources.

The SRF Laboratory occupies a significant portion of Newman Laboratory on the Cornell campus. Laboratories include extensive clean-rooms for cavity construction. Once constructed, SRF cavities go through multiple stages of high-pressure rinsing, electopolishing, and high-temperature baking, all on-site at Newman Lab. After cleaning, cavities are then tested under different loaded conditions, in single-cell and multi-cell arrangements.

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Research Areas

High-Gradient Cavities

Cornell is involved in the International Linear Collider collaboration and the development of high-gradient SRF cavities for the linear collider. For the Energy Recovery Linac based light sources of the future, the SRF group is developing cavities and cryomodules supporting very high beam currents.

The original TESLA cavity (left) and the new re-entrant cavity (right).

In basic studies to push the performance of superconducting cavities, we have developed a new re-entrant shaped cavity which lowers the surface magnetic field and thus raises the theoretical maximum accelerating gradient. Made of high-thermal-conductivity niobium, our re-entrant single-cell cavities achieve world record accelerating fields of 47 - 52 MV/m; such high fields are essential for the ILC.

High Operating Q Cavities

We have proven new techniques to increase the operating Q of cavities in linear accelerators. Increasing the operating Q means that less power is used to establish the accelerating field so money can be saved in RF power investment and operating costs.

Record setting values of operating Q's are being achieved at Cornell with a new digital RF control system which stabilizes the amplitude and phase of the RF field. This digital RF control system has been tested at Cornell in CESR and at JLab in their IR free-electron laser and has achieved operating Q's of greater than 10⁸.