LCpedia
by Daisy Yuhas
What is a quench?
Everything has a limit—superconducting cavities are no exception. Physicists put voltage in their superconducting cavities to boost the energy of particles. But it’s possible to ask for too much from a cavity. When this happens, the cavity fails: the superconducting material becomes normal-conducting, the voltage collapses and the energy escapes. This is called a quench.