Tests of the first superconducting RFQ structure indicated that high surface electric fields could be sustained in a quadrupole geometry. However, the geometry used in those tests was not appropriate for an accelerating structure and the area sustaining the high electric field was too small to assume that such fields could be achieved in actual RFQ structures. We have initiated a program to analyze and model a variety of geometries suitable for superconducting RFQ structures. We are also designing a niobium RFQ sparker'' to experimentally measure the surface electric fields that can be achieved on large areas in an actual RFQ structure
