The RF Performance of Cavity Made From Defective Niobium Material Determined by Eddy Current Scanning

Eddy current scanning (ECS) has been used to screen niobium sheets to avoid defective material being used in costly cavity fabrication. The evaluation criterion of this quality control tool is not well understood. Past surface studies showed some features were shallow enough to be removed by chemical etching. The remaining features were identified to be small number of deeper inclusions, but mostly unidentifiable features (by chemical analysis). A real cavity made of defective niobium material has been tested. The cavity achieved high performance with comparable results to the cavities made from defect free cavities. Temperature mapping could help to define the control standard clearly.