| Title |
Ab Initio Theory of the Impact of Grain Boundaries on the Superconducting Properties of Nb₃Sn |
| Authors |
- M.M. Kelley, T. Arias, N. Sitaraman
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
|
| Abstract |
For over 50 years experiments have repeatedly demonstrated that the superconducting performance of Nb₃Sn is profoundly sensitive to grain boundaries (GBs), but only recently has a microscopic theory emerged. Here we present the first comprehensive, ab initio study of GBs in Nb₃Sn*. While most conventional superconductors, such as Nb, are not significantly impacted by GBs, Nb₃Sn is much more sensitive to defects and disorder owing to its short coherence length of ~3 nm. Indeed, experiments suggest a link between GB stoichiometry and the performance of Nb₃Sn superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities, and mesoscopic simulations point to GBs as a candidate mechanism that lowers the vortex-entry field in Nb₃Sn SRF cavities. Our density-functional theory (DFT) calculations on tilt and twist GBs provide direct insight into antisite defect formation near GBs and how local electronic properties are impacted by clean GBs and by GBs with added point defects. Ultimately, we will show how GB composition affects the local Tc around GBs in Nb₃Sn to elucidate recent SRF experiments and provide insight on promising modifications to the growth procedure of Nb₃Sn to optimize its SRF performance.
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| Footnotes & References |
[*] Michelle M Kelley et al 2021 Supercond. Sci. Technol. 34 015015 |
| Funding |
This work was supported by the US National Science Foundation under award PHY-1549132, the Center for Bright Beams. |
| Paper |
download SUPFDV002.PDF [0.711 MB / 5 pages] |
| Cite |
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※ EndNote |
| Conference |
SRF2021 |
| Series |
International Conference on RF Superconductivity (20th) |
| Location |
East Lansing, MI, USA |
| Date |
28 June-02 July 2021 |
| Publisher |
JACoW Publishing, Geneva, Switzerland |
| Editorial Board |
Kenji Saito (FRIB, MSU, East Lansing, MI, USA); Ting Xu (FRIB, MSU, East Lansing, MI, USA); Naruhiko Sakamoto (RIKEN, Wako, Japan); Ana Lesage (FRIB, MSU, East Lansing, MI, USA); Volker R.W. Schaa (GSI, Darmstadt, Germany) |
| Online ISBN |
978-3-95450-233-2 |
| Online ISSN |
2673-5504 |
| Received |
01 July 2021 |
| Accepted |
02 December 2021 |
| Issue Date |
09 April 2022 |
| DOI |
doi:10.18429/JACoW-SRF2021-SUPFDV002 |
| Pages |
62-66 |
| Copyright |
 Published by JACoW Publishing under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s), the published article's title, publisher, and DOI. |
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