Materials frontiers in low loss superconducting RF cavities
| Date/Time: | Tuesday, 08 Nov 2016 from 2:10 pm to 3:00 pm |
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| Location: | Physics 18/19 |
| Phone: | 515-294-7377 |
| Channel: | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences |
| Actions: | Download iCal/vCal | Email Reminder |
The role of materials properties in radio frequency superconductivity has been the focus of intense research for more than 60 years. Nearly all of the effort, however, has focused on the high power limit with applications in, e.g., particle accelerators. In the past few years, rapid progress has been made in the application of superconducting resonance structures to quantum information and quantum computing -- reinvigorating interest in the fundamental sources of noise and decoherence in superconducting devices at low powers and temperatures (T<<Tc). I will present an overview of recent work at LLNL focused on understanding and mitigating loss mechanisms in low power, high Q, superconducting resonators. Of particular interest is the role of microstructure, bulk and surface impurities and surface morphology on dephasing and decay of the superconducting order parameter at RF frequencies. In conclusion, I will discuss the potential of employing additive manufacturing techniques to study this problem and as a means to fabricate novel low-loss superconducting devices. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.