Commissioning of the UKRI STFC Daresbury Vertical Test Facility for Jacketed SRF Cavities

A novel vertical test facility has been developed at the STFC Daresbury Laboratory. The VTF is designed to test 3 jacketed SRF cavities in a horizontal configuration in a single cool-down run at 2 K. Cavities were tested at low power levels for HOMs and passband modes, and Q vs E field measurements at high power levels. The specification requires an unloaded Q of 5·10⁹ at a field gradient of 19.9 MV/m. The cavities are cooled with superfluid helium filled into their individual helium jackets. This reduces the liquid helium consumption by more than 70% in comparison with the conventional facilities operational elsewhere. The facility will be used to conduct a 2-year program to qualify 84 high-beta SRF cavities for the European Spallation Source as part of the UK’s in-kind contribution. This paper reports on the commissioning program, along with a detailed discussion of the RF and cryogenic operations and performance of the facility.
Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on RF Superconductivity, SRF2021, East Lansing, MI, USA