Surface temperature measurements on superconducting cavities in superfluid helium

Two thermometry systems have been developed: a scanning thermometer system routinely used for the 1.5 GHz monocell cavity studies and a fixed thermometer array used to investigate spatial surface resistance distribution on various SC removable endplates of a cylindrical TE011mode cavity. Thermometers used in these systems are thermally insulated from the surrounding HeII bath by an epoxy housing ('epoxy'thermometers). Accurate calibration of the fixed thermometers was conducted by using different test cells and the experimental results were compared to model calculations performed with a finite element computational code. Measured thermometer efficiency and linearity are in good agreement with numerical results. Some typical temperature maps of different Nb samples obtained with the TE011 array (40 epoxy thermometers) are discussed. On the basis of numerical modelling results, a new type of thermometer with an improved efficiency has been designed. The thermal insulation against Helium II has been drastically improved by placing the sensitive part of the thermometer in a small vacuum jacket ('vacuum' thermometers). Two main goals have been reached with the first prototypes: improved efficiency by a factor of 2.5 - 3, and a bath temperature dependence of the thermal response in good agreement with the expected Kapitza conductance behaviour. Fitting experimental results with numerical modelling data, allow us to estimate the Kapitza conductance. The obtained values are in good agreement with the previous results reported by several authors using a different measurement method. The 'vacuum' thermometers are currently used on the TE011 mode cavity with Nb and NbTiN plates and the first results are presented