This thesis investigated the microstructure and mechanical property of RRR( high purity) and RG (low purity) niobium (Nb) sheet material. RRR Nb is used in the fabrication RF cavities. Our method involves processing bulk niobium by equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE) and then cross rolling to obtain sheets. This work is a study of the effect different thermomechanical processing variables have on the microstructure niobium sheets. Recrystallization behaviors strongly depended on the purity levels. Tensile tests on sheets clearly indicated the anisotropy in the sheet material. The ductility of the sheet was found to be the largest at an angle of 45o to the rolling direction. There was no apparent relationship observed in the yielding behavior in the different samples. The formability of the sheet measured by the anisotropy ratio suggested a strong dependence of anisotropy on texture. Texture results obtained show that different routes of ECAE can lead to variety of textures in final sheet material. Correlations between the microstructure and the ECAE routes suggest that effective control of microstructure is possible by the thermomechanical steps followed in this study.

The ARIEL electron linac is a 0.3MW accelerator that will drive the production of rare isotopes in TRIUMF's new ARIEL facility. A planned upgrade will allow a second beam to be accelerated in the linac simultaneously, driving a Free Electron Laser while operating as an energy recovery linac. To not disrupt beam delivery to the ARIEL facility, an RF beam separator is required to separate the interleaved beams after they exit the accelerating cavities. A 650MHz superconducting RF deflecting mode cavity has been designed, built, and tested for providing the required 0.3MV transverse deflecting voltage to separate the interleaved beams. The cavity operates in a TE-like mode, and has been optimized through the use of simulation tools for high shunt impedance with minimal longitudinal footprint. The design process and details about the resulting electromagnetic and mechanical design are presented, covering the cavity's RF performance, coupling to the operating and higher order modes, multipacting susceptibility, and the physical design. The low power dissipation on the cavity walls at the required deflecting field allows for the cavity to be fabricated using non-conventional techniques. These include fabricating from bulk, low purity niobium and the use of TIG welding for joining the cavity parts. A method for TIG welding niobium is developed that achieves minimal degradation in purity of the weld joint while using widely available fabrication equipment. Applying these methods to the fabrication of the separator cavity makes this the first SRF cavity to be built at TRIUMF. The results of cryogenic RF tests of the separator cavity at temperatures down to 2K are presented. At the operating temperature of 4.2K, the cavity achieves a quality factor of 4e8 at the design deflecting voltage of 0.3MV. A maximum deflecting voltage of 0.82MV is reached at 4.2K, with peak surface fields of 26MV/m and 33mT. The cavity's performance exceeds the goal deflecting voltage and quality factor required for operation. / Graduate

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Superconducting thin films are a possible alternative to bulk niobium for superconducting radio frequency cavity applications. Thin film cavities have produced larger Q0 than bulk niobium at low accelerating voltages [1], are less susceptible to external magnetic fields and therefore require less magnetic shielding than bulk niobium cavities [2] and can benefit from substrates which conduct heat more effectively than bulk niobium [3]. The major drawback for current thin film cavity technology is the large Q slope which is observed above accelerating gradients of 6 7 MV/m. The mechanism for the Q slope is not yet fully understood. Theories have been suggested but are not accepted by everyone within the scientific community [2, 4, 5, 6, 7]. It is assumed that a better understanding of the physical properties of superconducting films is required before the origins of the sharp Q slope can be elucidated. This study has been conducted to better understand the physical properties of superconducting thin films deposited by the magnetron sputtering process. In particular, superconducting niobium films have been deposited by high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) and tested by a wide range of analytical techniques as a function of the substrate temperature and applied bias during deposition. Analytical techniques which have been used include x-ray diffraction crystallography, Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, residual resistance ratio, DC magnetometry and RF surface resistance measurements. Results showed that the application of an applied bias during deposition resulted in increased energy of bombarding ions and enhanced rates of surface diffusion and defect annihilation within the microstructure of a growing niobium film. However, large numbers of random complex defects formed once the energy of bombarding ions becomes too large. The systematic approach that was described to investigate the changing morphological and DC superconducting properties of deposited films, as a function of the applied bias, allowed the identification of which process conditions produce the fewest random complex defects. The same systematic investigations could be applied to any HiPIMS deposition facility to provide similar results. An important observation during the study is that the initial substrate conditions have a large influence on the properties of a deposited niobium film. Niobium films deposited onto polycrystalline copper substrate that was pre-annealed at 700 ˚C prior to deposition displayed more stable magnetic flux pinning, larger RRR and an enhanced resistance to the onset of flux penetration, than was observed for films deposited with a wide range of process conditions onto as received copper substrate. Superconductors other than niobium have been successfully deposited by HiPIMS and tested. Niobium titanium nitride thin films displayed a superconducting transition temperature up to 16.7 K, with a normal state resistivity as small as 45±7 μΩcm. The findings suggest that similar niobium titanium nitride thin films could produce smaller RF surface resistance than bulk niobium cavities at 4.2 K.

Linear colliders are an option for lepton collision at several TeV. The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) aims at electron and positron collisions at a centre of mass energy of 3 TeV. In CLIC, the main accelerating structures are designed to operate at an X-band frequency of 12 GHz with an accelerating gradient of 100 MV/m. Two significant issues in linear accelerators that can prevent high gradient being achieved are electrical breakdown and wakefields. The baseline design for the CLIC main linacs relies on a small aperture size to reduce the breakdown probability and a strong damping scheme to suppress the wakefields. The strong damping scheme may have a higher possibility of electrical breakdown. In this thesis an alternative design for the main accelerating structures of CLIC is studied and various aspects of this design are discussed. This design is known as a Damped and Detuned Structure (DDS) which relies on moderate damping and strong detuning of the higher order modes (HOMs). The broad idea of DDS is based upon the Next Linear Collider (NLC) design. The advantages of this design are: well damped wakefields, minimised rf breakdown probability and reduced size of the structure compared to the strong damping design. Procedures necessary to minimise the rf monopole fields and enhance the wakefield suppression are discussed. The rf as well as mechanical designs of a test structure are presented. This unique design forms the basis of this research and allows both the electrical breakdown and beam dynamics constraints to be simultaneously satisfied.