Niobium Coatings for the HIE-ISOLDE QWR Superconducting Accelerating Cavities

Abstract

The HIE-ISOLDE (High Intensity and Energy at ISOLDE) project is the upgrade of the existing ISOLDE (Isotope Separator On Line DEvice) facility at CERN, which is dedicated to the production of a large variety of radioactive ion beams for nuclear physics experiments. A new linear accelerator made of 20 ȕ=10.3% and 12 ȕ=6.3% quarter-wave resonators (QWR) superconducting (SC) accelerating cavities at 101 MHz will be built, and in a first phase two cryomodules of 5 high-ȕ cavities each are scheduled to accelerate first beams in 2015. The cavities are made of a copper substrate, with a sputter-coated superconductive niobium (Nb) layer, operated at 4.5 K with an accelerating field of 6 MV/m at 10W Radio-Frequency (RF) losses (Q=4.5· 108). In this paper we will discuss the baseline surface treatment and coating procedure which allows obtaining the required performance, as well as the steps undertaken in order to prepare series production of the required number of cavities guaranteeing their quality and functionality