Numerical quality factor statistics for superconducting rf cavities with spatially inhomogeneous multilayer coatings modeled by Gaussian random fields
Abstract
Bulk niobium has long been the material of choice for superconducting radio-frequency applications. An alternative approach is the superconductor-insulator-superconductor multilayer structure, which enables the use of brittle high-Tc materials such as NbTiN. At present, SIS coatings are limited to flat samples, with the single-cell TESLA cavity representing a key milestone. Extending coating processes to non-flat geometries is expected to introduce macroscopic inhomogeneities in coating thickness. We model these variations using Gaussian random fields parametrized by a length scale, and generated by solving a stochastic partial differential equation. The resulting field is incorporated into the boundary condition of the cavity eigenvalue problem, from which quantities of interest -- such as resonant frequency and quality factor -- are computed. This procedure is repeated for eight length scales, with \num{2048} samples per length scale, where the resulting quality factors are recorded. Our results show that the quality factors follow a normal distribution. The standard deviation increases with the length scale and can be statistically distinguished. In contrast, the mean values remain largely unchanged, with only a few significant differences. In extreme cases, depending on the length scale, the quality factor may differ from the uniform case by \SIrange{2}{6}{\percent}.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{gobeyn2026numerical,
title = {{Numerical quality factor statistics for superconducting rf cavities with spatially inhomogeneous multilayer coatings modeled by Gaussian random fields}},
author = {Aaron Gobeyn and Wolfgang Ackermann and Herbert De Gersem},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2605.05505},
eprint = {2605.05505},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.05505},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Numerical quality factor statistics for superconducting rf cavities with spatially inhomogeneous multilayer coatings modeled by Gaussian random fields
AU - Aaron Gobeyn
AU - Wolfgang Ackermann
AU - Herbert De Gersem
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/09
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2605.05505
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.05505
AB - Bulk niobium has long been the material of choice for superconducting radio-frequency applications. An alternative approach is the superconductor-insulator-superconductor multilayer structure, which enables the use of brittle high-T_c materials such as NbTiN. At present, SIS coatings are limited to flat samples, with the single-cell TESLA cavity representing a key milestone. Extending coating processes to non-flat geometries is expected to introduce macroscopic inhomogeneities in coating thickness. We model these variations using Gaussian random fields parametrized by a length scale, and generated by solving a stochastic partial differential equation. The resulting field is incorporated into the boundary condition of the cavity eigenvalue problem, from which quantities of interest -- such as resonant frequency and quality factor -- are computed. This procedure is repeated for eight length scales, with \num{2048} samples per length scale, where the resulting quality factors are recorded. Our results show that the quality factors follow a normal distribution. The standard deviation increases with the length scale and can be statistically distinguished. In contrast, the mean values remain largely unchanged, with only a few significant differences. In extreme cases, depending on the length scale, the quality factor may differ from the uniform case by \SIrange{2}{6}{\percent}.
ER -