 |
Camille M. Ginsburg, deputy head of the SRF Development Department in the Technical Division, wrote this column.
Superconducting radio frequency (SRF) advances at Fermilab depend not only on the melting pot of Fermilab employees old and new, but also fundamentally on both national and international collaborators. Within the past few years, with hard work and determination, Fermilab has become a world leader in SRF technology, and has built an array of world-class facilities to support SRF R&D. Ongoing SRF projects include the development of cavities, RF power and controls, cryomodules and instrumentation for Project X and R&D for the International Linear Collider (ILC). In the Technical Division, we are on the verge of the completion of CM2, the first 1.3 GHz cryomodule completely procured and assembled in the U.S.
CM2 builds upon the success of CM1, the cryomodule built from a kit in collaboration with DESY and INFN, which is currently operating in the SRF Test Facility, formerly New Muon Lab. The eight SRF cavities for CM2 represent some of the successes in understanding niobium material properties, cavity fabrication techniques, surface processing, coupler and tuner preparation, vacuum systems, production travelers, and testing developed with help from our collaborators in the Tesla Technology Collaboration and the ILC. All CM2 cavities exceeded the gradient and quality factor levels specified for the proposed ILC in a vertical test at Jefferson Lab, and all except one reached 35 MV/m in a horizontal test at Fermilab. CM2 has a good chance of achieving ILC-level performance (i.e., 31.5 MV/m average operational gradient) and its completion represents a major milestone in Fermilab SRF activity.
Our Fermilab world has recently changed substantially. We’ve gone from a focus on Energy Frontier to Intensity Frontier accelerators. Our SRF team will continue to work on advances in SRF technology and build collaborations with those colleagues we have known for decades as well as with those we have recently met. We look forward to contributing to the construction of Fermilab’s next machine with significant SRF emphasis, Project X.
For more information about future accelerators at Fermilab, please attend the Physics for Everyone presentation at 12:30 p.m. today by Fermilab Associate Director for Accelerators, Stuart Henderson, titled “Project X: A powerful accelerator for particle physics.”