부산대학교 도서관

Niobium is an important technological superconductor used to make radio frequency cavities for particle accelerators. Using laser confocal microscopy we have directly investigated hydride precipitates formation in cavity-grade niobium at 77 and 140 K. We have found that large hydrides were usually formed after chemical or mechanical treatments, which are known to lead to a strong degradation of the quality factor known as Q disease. From our experiments we can conclude that hydrides causing Q disease are islands with a characteristic thickness of ≳100 nm and in-plane dimensions 1–10 μm. Our results show that mechanical polishing uploads a lot of hydrogen into bulk niobium while electropolishing leads to a mild contamination. Vacuum treatments at 600–800°C are demonstrated to preclude large hydride formation in line with the absence of Q disease in similarly treated cavities.