Marc Ross | 28 July 2011Niobium’s superconducting ability recommends it as a metal of choice for ILC accelerating cavities, but it brings challenges to the R&D table. Laboratories and industry alike work to set down the best possible, most cost-effective process for forming niobium into high-performing structures.
Category: Director's Corner | Tagged: cavity production, Cavity Production Pilot Plant, niobium
Min Zhang | 24 February 2011On 18 February 2011, a delegation of Global Design Effort representatives visited the Orient Tantalum Industry Co. Ltd (OTIC), Ningxia, a leading niobium company in China. The group consisted of ILC project managers Akira Yamamoto and Marc Ross, together with Robert Rimmer of Thomas Jefferson Laboratory in the US, accompanied by Asian Linear Collider Steering Committee Chairman Jie Gao and ILC group member Jiyuan Zhai of the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) in Beijing.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: China, GDE Project Managers, industrialisation, industry, niobium, superconducting cavity
Rika Takahashi | 1 July 2010The ILC will have an ultra-cold and complex heart made of niobium, a rare, soft, grey, and ductile transition metal. Some 18,000 radio frequency (RF) accelerating cavities for the ILC will be made of niobium, which becomes superconductor when cooled to nearly absolute zero. The global annual production of niobium in 2007 was 58,000 tonnes, and it is expected to grow up to 45 percent more in 2010 with a positive trend towards economic recovery. Although it is a 'rare' material, the reserves of niobium are assumed to be enough to cover the current world demand for 500 years
Category: Feature | Tagged: industrialisation, niobium, SRF industrialisation
Elizabeth Clements | 6 December 2007Turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie – all things you might appreciate on Thanksgiving. ILC scientists in the United States had something extra to be thankful for this year. On 21 November, the day before the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, a superconducting cavity manufactured by Advanced Energy Systems in Medford, NY, reached a high gradient of 32.6 megavolts per metre (MV/m) at Jefferson Laboratory. “This is the first US-built ILC nine-cell cavity to reach a gradient close to the ILC specification,” said Rongli Geng, the lead scientist at JLab on the nine-cell high-gradient cavity processing R&D. JLab scientists are hopeful that the cavity, dubbed AES2, will reach an even higher gradient after further processing.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: cavity gradient, JLab, niobium, United States
Perrine Royole-Degieux | 6 December 2007Physicists and engineers already know most of the empirical recipes to build very good accelerating cavities: highly pure niobium is essential, welding needs to be carefully controlled and surfaces undergo advanced cleaning and annealing procedures. But, as for every complex system, a lot of phenomena remain unexplained. The theoretical limits of RF superconductivity are not well known, and engineers also meet practical limitations to reach high gradients. Accelerator experts work very closely with material scientists to understand cavity properties better.
Category: Feature | Tagged: niobium
