The LHC superconducting cavities

The LHC RF system, which must handle high intensity (0.5 A d.c.) beams, makes use of superconducting single-cell cavities, best suited to minimizing the effects of periodic transient beam loading. There will be eight cavities per beam, each capable of delivering 2 MV (5 MV/m accelerating field) at 400 MHz. The cavities themselves are now being manufactured by industry, using niobium-on-copper technology which gives full satisfaction at LEP. A cavity unit includes a helium tank (4.5 K operating temperature) built around a cavity cell, RF and HOM couplers and a mechanical tuner, all housed in a modular cryostat. Four-unit modules are ultimately foreseen for the LHC (two per beam), while at present a prototype version with two complete units is being extensively tested. In addition to a detailed description of the cavity and its ancillary equipment, the first test results of the prototype are reported.