The Influence of Grain Boundaries on the Properties of Superconducting Radio Frequency Cavity Niobium

Grain boundaries (GBs) in niobium are multiply connected defects that may be responsible for significant performance degradation in superconducting radio frequency (RF) cavities. Magneto optical (MO) studies show that early flux penetration often occurs at GBs. One possible mechanism is that a locally reduced superconducting gap (Delta) at the GB reduces the depairing current density (Jb) and thus leads to a local reduction of the critical field. Alternatively vortices may penetrate the GB preferentially because of field enhancement at a GB groove, or for other reasons. In all these cases, the effect of high RF fields is to produce additional power dissipation, which in turn produces a reduction in quality factor (Q 0) and leads to a premature quench of the cavity.;To further our understanding of the superconducting properties of SRF-quality Nb, we made extensive superconducting characterizations by magneto-optical imaging, which allowed assessment of the uniformity of properties on scales down to about 5 microm and by direct transport voltage-current methods in single and bi-crystals treated by standard cavity optimization treatments of BCP (buffered chemical treatment) and EP (electropolishing). We correlated these superconducting characterizations to microstructural properties using scanning laser and scanning electron microscopy and then thinned some samples to examine them at the nanometer scale using analytical transmission electron microscopy (TEM). We also developed special metallographic sample preparation techniques that allowed us to apply these experimental approaches to very soft superconducting RF niobium in the polished conditions characteristics of a real inner cavity surface. Using MO imaging, we found that GBs can preferentially admit flux penetration when the plane of a GB is aligned parallel to the vector of the external magnetic field. In DC transport in the superconducting state, we found preferential flux flow at the GB and could detect the transition from single to multiple rows of vortex flow. Thus, we have been able to demonstrate that GBs can indeed be strong defects that locally depress the superconducting properties.