Mechanical characterization of copper coatings realized by thermal spraying

The stiffening of superconducting cavities is required to assure mechanical stability. The stiffening method used for the tesla test facility (TTF) is non-sufficient for the Tesla project (TeV energy superconducting linear accelerator). A new method has been developed, this method is based on the thermal spraying of a copper coating on the backside of a niobium cavity, simulations show a promising future for this technique. This report presents the structure, the behaviour and the characteristics of a copper coating realized by thermal spraying. The elastic properties of the coating plays an important role for the stiffening of the cavity. A stress analysis has been achieved on samples by using X-ray diffraction, this technique is the only one that takes into account anisotropy effects. From the results of tensile tests it appears that copper coatings are very fragile and far less ductile than massive metal, it is mainly due to the strong oxidation rate of the coating (about 12%). The hardness of a coating is 20% higher than of massive copper. Other tensile tests have been performed to evaluate the adherence of the coating to the niobium, an adherence force of 50 MPa has been deduced from testing. (A.C.)