RF superconductivity at INFN-GENOA

The main activities of the Genoa Group are endowed by INFN under the ENEA-INFN joint Project for the development of the prototype components for an Accelerator Driven System for Nuclear Waste Transmutation. (TRASCO project) The Genoa Group (jointly with the INFN Milan Group) works on the development of the Prototype structure of the High-Energy section of the linac (proton beta ranging from ∼0.5 to ∼0.85). The results achieved in the 2001 on that projects are quite encouraging; a 'Linac Ready' 5 cell sputtered cavity (beta 0.8, built and tested at CERN in 2000) was tested in a machine ready configuration. At the side of the Trasco Project the group is working to the development of a detection system for small Displacements (10-20 cm) using two coupled superconducting cavities. (PACO Project) The method was proven successful achieving a sensitivity 10-20 with a prototype cavity working at 3 GHz. This new detector is now the basis for the design of a two spherical cavity resonator to be used for the development of a Gravitational Waves detector covering an interval of the frequency spectrum not accessible to the Gravitational-Wave detectors today tacking data or under construction. The two main activities of the group are backed by a wide experimentation (in collaboration with the CEA Group) on the effect of the surface preparation and contamination of the niobium (sputtered or Bulk) on the RF Lasses and the maximum achievable Field in RF cavity. This activity is performed by XPS-Auger analysis coupled to the tests of RF cavity prototypes used to translate to a real accelerating device the information gathered on the small test samples. Last the group is pursuing the analysis of the Multipacting (MP) in RF cavities by updating and developing the TRAJECT code for MP simulation. The results of the simulations are validated by comparison with measurements on prototype cavities (mainly low beta). (others)