We report the finding of new surface treatments that permit to manipulate the niobium resonator nitrogen content in the first few nanometers in a controlled way, and the resonator fundamental Mattis-Bardeen surface resistance and residual resistance accordingly. In particular, we find surface "infusion" conditions that systematically a) increase the quality factor of these 1.3 GHz superconducting radio frequency (SRF) bulk niobium resonators, up to very high gradients; b) increase the achievable accelerating gradient of the cavity compared to its own baseline with state-of-the-art surface processing. Cavities subject to the new surface process have larger than two times the state of the art Q at 2K for accelerating fields > 35 MV/m. Moreover, very high accelerating gradients ~ 45 MV/m are repeatedly reached, which correspond to peak magnetic surface fields of 190 mT, among the highest measured for bulk niobium cavities. These findings open the opportunity to tailor the surface impurity content distribution to maximize performance in Q and gradients, and have therefore very important implications on future performance and cost of SRF based accelerators. They also help deepen the understanding of the physics of the RF niobium cavity surface.

DESY activities on 1.3 GHz tesla shape single cell and nine-cell large grain (LG) resonators are presented; results of the past five years are covered. The R&D program explores the potential for production of elliptical superconducting cavities. The main efforts have been devoted to material investigation, development of LG disk production, cavity fabrication from this material, and a search for appropriate treatment. More than 250 LG disks are manufactured; several single cell and 11 nine-cell resonators are produced and rf tested after buffered chemical polishing and after additional electropolishing. A maximum accelerating gradient of approximately 45 MV=m for this type of cavity was achieved in two resonators. Two of the LG cavities have been installed and are currently being used in the FLASH accelerator operation. Assembly of a cryomodule, consisting of LG cavities only, is in the works. Perspectives of the LG cavity application are discussed.

In this letter, we present the frequency dependence of the vortex surface resistance of bulk niobium accelerating cavities as a function of different state-of-the-art surface treatments. Higher flux surface resistance per amount of trapped magnetic field-sensitivity-is observed for higher frequencies, in agreement with our theoretical model. Higher sensitivity is observed for N-doped cavities, which possess an intermediate value of electron mean-free-path, compared to 120 • C and EP/BCP cavities. Experimental results from our study showed that the sensitivity has a non-monotonic trend as a function of the mean-free-path, including at frequencies other than 1.3 GHz, and that the vortex response to the rf field can be tuned from the pinning regime to flux-flow regime by manipulating the frequency and/or the mean-free-path of the resonator, as reported in our previous studies. The frequency dependence of the trapped flux sensitivity to the amplitude of the accelerating gradient is also highlighted.

The discovery of nitrogen-doping treatment revealed that the radio frequency surface resistance of niobium resonators may be significantly reduced when nitrogen impurities are dissolved as interstitials in the material. A peculiar behavior exhibited by N-doped cavities is the anti-Q slope, i.e., a reduction in the temperature-dependent component of the surface resistance as a function of the accelerating field. This unusual trend in the surface resistance behavior has been attributed to the presence of interstitial nitrogen in the niobium lattice after the doping treatment. This Letter presents a focused study on the field dependence of the temperature-dependent component of the surface resistance as a function of the cavity resonant frequency. The findings show that the anti-Q slope may appear even in clean niobium cavities if the resonant frequency is high enough, which suggests new routes toward understanding the anti-Q slope effect.

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