CVD Deposition of Nb Based Materials for SRF Cavities

Bulk niobium cavities are widely employed in particle accelerators to create high accelerating gradient despite their high material and operation cost. Advancements in technology have taken bulk niobium close to its theoretical operational limits, pushing the research to explore novel materials, such as niobium based alloys. Nitrides of niobium offer such an alternative, exhibiting a higher Tc compared to bulk niobium. Replacing then the niobium with a material with better thermal conductivity, such as copper, coated with thin films of nitrides in a multilayer S-I-S would lead to improved performance at reduced cost. Physical vapour deposition (PVD) is currently used to produce these coatings, but it suffers from lack of conformity. This issue can be resolved by using chemical vapour deposition (CVD), which is able to produce high quality coatings over surfaces with a high aspect ratio. This project explores the use of CVD techniques to deposit NbN thin films starting from their chlorinated precursors. The samples obtained are characterized via SEM, FIB, XRD, and EDX.