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Question No 1

Study of heat transfer at cryogenic temperatures involve two significant phenomena known
as Kapitza conductance and Phonon Peak which are usually neglected above liquid helium
temperatures. In order to comprehend these phenomena in relation to Helium-II and Niobium, it is
paramount to discuss a little about Helium-II and Niobium and their combined applications.

Helium-4 (an isotope of He) is unique in


having two liquid forms. The normal liquid form
is called helium-I and exists at temperatures
from its boiling point of 4.21 K (268.9 C) down
to about 2.18 K (271 C). Below 2.18 K, thermal
conductivity of helium-4 becomes more than
1,000 times greater than that of copper. This
liquid form is called helium-II to distinguish it
from normal liquid helium-I. Helium-II exhibits
the property called superfluidity: its viscosity, or
resistance to flow, is so low that it has not been
measured (Hampel 1968).

Niobium is used in various


superconducting materials and pure Niobium
itself acts as super conductor at 8.7 - 8.9 K
(Woods 1957). It is used in superconducting
magnets for particle accelerators, MRI scanners
and NMR equipment. In the past two decades,
however, accelerator facilities have increasingly
found Niobium superconducting cavities to be
more suitable (or necessary) for their
accelerators. The motivation for using
superconductors in RF cavities is not to achieve
a net power savings, but rather to increase the "quality" of the beam attunement. Though
superconductors have very small electrical resistance, the little power they do dissipate is radiated
at very low temperatures and is allowed to sink in a liquid helium bath at 1.6 K to 4.5 K (Glowacki,
et al. 08/2002).

A simplified diagram of an SRF cavity in a helium bath


with RF coupling and a passing particle beam
Kapitza Conductance
It refers to the heat transfer between
solids and fluids at their surface interface. This
phenomenon of heat transfer is temperature
dependent, and its effect is negligible except at
liquid helium temperatures. It was first observed
by P. L. Kapitza in 1941 while studying heat
transfer from a solid into He-II (superfluid helium)
(Weisend 2012).

Kapitza conductance as a fundamental


mechanism occurs in all cases of heat transfer
from a solid surface to fluid i.e. Niobium to
Helium-II. This also includes, for example, heat
transfer from a solid to water at room
temperature. However, Kapitza conductance is
very temperature dependent, and its effect is
negligible except at liquid helium temperatures.
Moreover, due to the very effective heat transfer
mechanism found within He-II itself, in RF Cavities,
the effect of Kapitza conductance can be the
dominant resistance to heat transfer from the
Niobium surface to a He-II reservoir.

The greatest temperature drop between a heated surface i.e. Niobium and a He-II reservoir
connected by a channel of He-II will frequently occur right at the solid-liquid interface and be driven
by Kapitza conductance. Even in the case of He-I (T > 2.2K) the effect of Kapitza conductance is
frequently neglected. In cases where the surface heat flux is sufficient to generate boiling, the boiling
heat transfer mechanism dominates and Kapitza conductance is negligible.

Kapitza conductance does dominate in cases where the T < 2.2K and where no boiling
occurs. This covers a wide range of important technological applications including cooling of
superconducting RF cavities and magnets, heat exchanger design and applications below 1K. The
accelerating gradients in superconducting RF cavities can be limited by excessive temperature rise
on the inner surface. In some circumstances, such as high RF frequency or anomalous losses,
improved heat transfer at the niobium-helium interface can increase the achievable gradient (Grimm
2006). Refer Fig. 2 (A. Aizaz 2010).

There are theories i.e. acoustic mismatch and


phonon radiation limit that describe the fundamental
physics of Kapitza conductance (Swartz 1989). The
acoustic mismatch theory predicted a very high
thermal resistance (low thermal conductance) at
solid-helium interfaces. However, such a large
thermal resistance was not observed due to many
mechanisms which promoted phonon transport.
While these theories (particularly the acoustic
mismatch) likely describe the physical phenomenon,
their predictions tend to bracket the experimental
data so practical predictions of Kapitza conductance
always rely on empirical data rather than theoretical
predictions. The domain of Kapitza conductance still
poses many unanswered questions for which further research is needed (A. Aizaz 2010).

Kapitza conductance is independent of any motion of the fluid in contact with the solid.
However, it depends on the temperature, residual stresses in solids as well as on their surface finish
and surface impurities (Grimm 2006). Kaptiza conductance can be improved by controlling these
factors and (Aizaz 2017) has reported 300% increase in Kapitza conductance through Annealing at
higher temperatures during Niobium RF cavities fabrication process.

Phonon Peak
Phonon Peak refers to some local maxima in
the declining trend of thermal conductivity once the
solid is subjected to cryogenic temperatures below
liquid He-II superfluid. At the operating temperatures
of the cavity, when Nb is in its superconducting state,
its thermal conductivity varies dramatically with
temperature and is governed by the interplay of both
of the heat carriers, i.e., electrons and phonons. The
thermal conductivity of Nb above 4 K is dominated by
the electronic conduction of thermal energy. For
temperatures below 3 K, due to dominant phonon
conduction (A. Aizaz 2010). Though not always the
case with high RRR Nb material, a typical curve for
large grain (through annealing) Nb thermal conductivity usually shows local maxima below 3 K,
known as phonon peak (H. Padamsee 1998).
A phonon is a quantum mechanical description of an elementary vibrational motion in which
a lattice of atoms or molecules uniformly oscillates at a single frequency. The thermodynamic
properties of a solid are directly related to its phonon structure. At absolute zero temperature, a
crystal lattice lies in its ground state, and contains no phonons. A lattice at a nonzero temperature
has an energy that is not constant, but fluctuates randomly about some mean value. These energy
fluctuations are caused by random lattice vibrations, which can be viewed as a gas of phonons. This
random motion of the atoms in the lattice is what we usually think of as heat (Simon 2013).

The major advantage of the improved phonon peak in the thermal conductivity is for high
frequency defect-free cavities operating at 2 K. The signicance of the phonon peak on the improved
performance of SRF cavities can be realised form Fig. 2. The numerically estimated improvement
in magnetic field of Niobium RF cavities significantly increase accelerating gradients in
superconducting RF cavities. (A. Aizaz 2010).

The thermal response of niobium cavities


at liquid helium temperatures remains an active
area of research in order to increase the
accelerating gradients of future accelerators.
There are several factors that can influence
phonon peak in Niobium superconducting RF
cavities and can slow down phonons and
consequently the rate of heat transfer.

The effects of plastic deformation on the


thermal conductivity in the phonon transmission
regime, as well as on the Kapitza conductance,
have been studied by (Aizaz 2017). The study reveals absence of the phonon peak after deformation
beyond the elastic limit of niobium, with an almost 80% reduction in the thermal conductivity of
niobium at 2 K. Even a small amount of plastic deformations (3% of strains) induced at any stage of
material processing can cause the loss of phonon peak. Similarly results from (Chris Compton 2007)
research at Michigan State University revealed that the phonon peak diminishes as the residual
strain increases in annealed fine grain niobium. Same can be appreciated from the graphical results
presented on the top right side of the page.

(A. Aizaz 2010) through rigorous experimentations, further studied the effect of low, moderate
and high temperature annealing on Niobium superconducting RF cavities. Low temperature
annealing (at 750 0C for 2 hours) was found to be insufcient to recover the lost phonon peak.
However, titanication done at 1300 0C restored the lost phonon peak. Ignoring other effects, simple
1D numerical computations performed in this study reveal that the effect of recovery of the lost
phonon peak along with improved Kapitza conductance resulted in 50% improvement in the applied
magnetic elds for the case of 1.3 GHz cavity operating at 2 K. Thus, the need for titanication of
cavities is found to be the single most necessary step in the preparation of high frequency cavities
resulting in improved performance through enhanced phonon peak and signicantly increased
Kapitza conductance.

Phonon transmission can be


easily visualized by ultrasonic
transmission through solids.
Therefore, phonon scattering through
rough grain boundaries greatly
attenuates conduction of heat flux
from Niobium superconducting RF
cavities below 3 K. (Glowacki, et al.
08/2002) has studied the Niobium
ingot in relation with heat treatment at
different temperatures and time.
Graphical results of his study are
presented in this figure which shows highest phonon peak for Sample-4 annealed at 750 0C for 2
hours. It is important to note that, study of (A. Aizaz 2010) involves plastically deformed Nb sheet
which underwent through a deep drawing process to obtain the desired shape. Low temperature
annealing (at 750 0C for 2 hours) was found to be insufcient to recover the lost phonon peak due
to residual strains imparted during cold work.
References
A. Aizaz, T. L. Grimm, N. T. Wright. 2010. "Thermal design studies in superconducting rf cavities: Phonon peak and
Kapitza conductance." Physical Review Special Topics - Accelerators And Beams 13, September 2010.
Aizaz, Ahmad & L Grimm, T. 2017. "Thermal Design Studies of Niobium SRF Cavities."
Chris Compton, Ahmad Aizaz, Derek Baars, Tom Bieler, John Bierwagen, Steve Bricker, Terry Grimm Walter
Hartung, Hairong Jiang, Matt Johnson, John Popielarski, Laura Saxton. 2007. "Single Crystal and Large Grain
Niobium Research at Michigan State University." Michigan State University East Lansing, MI;
10.1063/1.2770682.
Glowacki, B. A., X.-Y. Yan, D. Fray, G. Chen, M. Majoros, and Y. Shi. 08/2002. "Niobium based intermetallics as a
source of high-current/high magnetic field superconductors." Physics C: Superconductivity and its
applications, Volume 372, 1315-1320.
Grimm, A. Aizaz and T.L. 2006. "Thermal Limitations in Superconducting Rf Cavities: Improved Heat Transfer at
Niobium-Helium Interface." National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory Michigan State University, East
Lansing, Michigan, 48823, USA, April: 1.
H. Padamsee, J. Knobloch, and T. Hays,. 1998. "RF Super-conductivity for Accelerators." Wiley, New York.
Hampel, Clifford A. 1968. "The Encyclopedia of the Chemical Elements." Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 256268.
Simon, Steven H. 2013. "The Oxford solid state basics (1st ed.) ." Oxford University Press, 82.
Swartz, E.T., Pohl, R.O. 1989. "Thermal Boundary Resistance." Reviews of Modern Physics Volume 61, Issue 3, July-
September.
Weisend, Dr. John. 2012. "Cold Facts ." Defining Cryogenics, October 18.
Woods, G. K. White and S. B. 1957. "Thermal Conductivity of some Solids." Canadian Journal of Physics, 892-900.

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