High Thermal Conductivity Cryogenic RF Feedthroughs for Higher Order Mode Couplers

The use of higher-order-mode (HOM) pickup probes in the presence of significant fundamental RF fields can present a thermal challenge for CW or high average power SRF cavity applications. The electric field probes on the HOM-damping couplers on the JLab “High Gradient” (HG) and “Low Loss” (LL) seven-cell cavities for the CEBAF upgrade are exposed to approximately 10% of the peak magnetic field in the cavity. To avoid significant dissipative losses, these probes must remain superconducting during operation. Typical cryogenic rf feedthroughs provide a poor thermal conduction path for the probes and provide inadequate stabilization. We have developed solutions that meet the requirements, providing a direct thermal path from the niobium probe, thorough single-crystal sapphire, to bulk copper which can be thermally anchored. Designs, electromagnetic and thermal analyses, and performance data will be presented.