Centre d'études et d'expertise sur les risques, l'environnement, la mobilité et l'aménagement

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We report a surface treatment that systematically improves the quality factor of niobium radio frequency cavities beyond the expected limit for niobium. A combination of annealing in a partial pressure of nitrogen or argon gas and subsequent electropolishing of the niobium cavity surface leads to unprecedented low values of the microwave surface resistance, and an improvement in the efficiency of the accelerating structures up to a factor of 3, reducing the cryogenic load of superconducting cavities for both pulsed and continuous duty cycles. The field dependence of the surface resistance is reversed compared to standardly treated niobium. * Corresponding author: annag@fnal.gov

The 7.8 eV nuclear isomer transition in 229 thorium has been suggested as a clock transition in a new type of optical frequency standard. Here we discuss the construction of a 'solid-state nuclear clock' from thorium nuclei implanted into single crystals transparent in the vacuum ultraviolet range. We investigate crystal-induced line shifts and broadening effects for the specific system of calcium fluoride. At liquid nitrogen temperatures, the clock performance will be limited by decoherence due to magnetic coupling of the thorium nuclei to neighboring nuclear moments, ruling out the commonly used Rabi or Ramsey interrogation schemes. We propose clock stabilization based on a fluorescence spectroscopy method and present optimized operation parameters. Taking advantage of the large number of quantum oscillators under continuous interrogation, a fractional instability level of 10 −19 might be reached within the solid-state approach.