Failure of Conventional Roughness Metrics in Assessing Field-Limiting Mesoscopic Topography in SRF Nb Films on Cu

Abstract

A characteristic corrugated surface morphology of Nb films on Cu is identified, with mesoscopic features comparable to the London penetration depth and coherence length, and its impact on superconducting radio frequency cavity performance metrics is examined. Magnetic field enhancement factors and superheating field suppression factors are calculated within the London model for a representative corrugated geometry. These results demonstrate that roughness trends derived from buffered chemical polished and electropolished Nb cavities do not capture the impact of nanoscale surface morphology on SRF Nb thin film performance, as even surfaces that possess low average roughness can contain geometric features that generate substantial local field enhancement and significantly suppress the Bean Livingston barrier. The influence of surface roughness on impurity diffusion is also investigated, which highlights the roles of increased surface area and local geometric confinement in modifying near surface impurity distributions. Tracking the effect of impurity diffusion on the evolution of magnetic field enhancement, we show that geometrically confined impurity distributions can mitigate nanoscale magnetic field enhancement substantially.