HIGH RESOLUTION AND FAST SCANNING SQUID BASED NON-DESTRUCTIVE INSPECTION SYSTEM OF NIOBIUM SHEETS FOR SRF CAVITIES

Applications in high energy physics accelerators and other fields require the use of thousands of superconducting RF (SRF) cavities that are made of high purity Nb material and the purity of niobium is critical for these cavities to reach the highest accelerating fields. Tantalum is the most prolific of metal inclusions, which can cause thermal breakdown and prevent the cavities from reaching their theoretical performance limits of 45-50 MV/m, and DOE Labs are searching for a technology that could detect small impurities in superconducting Nb sheets reaching the highest possible accelerating fields. The proposed innovative SQUID-based Nondestructive system can scan Niobium sheets used in the manufacturing of SRF cavities with both high speed and high resolution. A highly sensitive SQUID system with a gradiometer probe, non-magnetic dewar, data acquisition system, and a scanning system will be developed for fast detection of impurities in planar Nb sheets. In phase I, we will modify our existing SQUID-based eddy current system to detect 100 micron size Ta defects and a great effort will focus on achieving fast scanning of a large number of niobium sheets in a shorter time and with reasonable resolution. An older system operated by moving the sample 1 mm, stopping and waiting for 1-2 seconds, then activating a measurement by the SQUID after the short settle time is modified. A preliminary designed and implemented a SQUID scanning system that is fast and is capable of scanning a 30 cm x 30 cm Nb sheet in 15 minutes by continuously moving the table at speeds up to 10 mm/s while activating the SQUID at 1mm interval is modified and reached the Phase I goal of 100mm resolution. We have successfully demonstrated the feasibility that a fast speed SQUID scanner without sacrificing the resolution of detection can be done, and a data acquisition and analysis system is also preliminary developed. The SQUID based scanner will help reach the highest accelerating field in SRF cavities that will provide a considerable cost reduction for new accelerators and for upgrades of existing accelerators. This will be realized either by reducing the length required for the SRF cavities or by the installation of higher gradient cavities for energy upgrades in the same space. The SQUID based scanner will also be used for the detection of defects on the surface, inside the bulk or at the back side of metallic sheets in other industries.