Advance Additive Manufacturing Method for SRF Cavities of Various Geometries

Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) accelerating structures are now considered the device of choice for many of todays leading applications in high energy and nuclear physics, which include: energy recovery linacs (ERLs), linear colliders (ILC), neutrino factories, spallation neutron sources, and rare isotope accelerators. These projects place enormous demand for more reliable and economic methods of fabrication, assembly, and operation of SRF cavities. Current state-of-the-art SRF accelerating cavities require the use of many complex and expensive techniques throughout their fabrication cycle. This project will investigate a novel fabrication technique which will allow the production of nearly monolithic SRF niobium cavities of arbitrary shape with features such as optimized wall thickness and/or integrated stiffeners, greatly reducing the cost and technical variability of conventional cavity construction. Sample pieces of niobium produced with this new fabrication technique will be tested. A single cell SRF Nb cavity will be designed incorporating these novel features. In Phase II, a full prototype structure will be fabricated and tested. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: The applications of SRF accelerating cavities include energy recovery linacs (ERLs), linear colliders (ILC), neutrino factories, spallation neutron sources, rare isotope accelerators, proton/ion accelerators used in medicine, as well as imaging/analysis applications to homeland security. The technical approach developed in this project may also be applied to other applications using niobium such as rocket engines and medical implants.