Eddy Current Scanning of Niobium for SRF Cavities at Fermilab

In the framework of SRF cavity development, Fermilab is creating the infrastructure needed for the characterization of the material used in the cavity fabrication. An important step in the characterization of "as received" niobium sheets is eddy current scanning. Eddy current scanning is a non-destructive technique first adopted and further developed by DESY with the purpose of checking the cavity material for sub-surface defects and inclusions. Fermilab has received and further upgraded a commercial eddy current scanner previously used for the SNS project. This scanner is now used daily to scan the niobium sheets for the Fermilab third harmonic, the ILC, and the Proton Driver cavities. After optical inspection, more than 400 squares and disks have been scanned and when necessary checked at the optical and electron microscopes, anodized, or measured with profilometers looking for surface imperfections that might limit the performance of the cavities. This paper gives a status report on the scanning results obtained so far, including a discussion of the classification of signals being detected.