| Popis: |
A 400-MHz niobium quadrupole resonator has been manufactured to study the rf properties of superconducting bulk and thin film samples at low temperatures. We describe the apparatus, i.e. the construction of the resonator, field calculations with MAFIA, and the experimental procedure. In first validation tests the surface resistance Rs of a reactor-grade bulk niobium sample as a function of temperature and applied rf field has been investigated by using a calorimetric "rf-dc-compensation" method. A critical temperature Tc = 9.15 ± 0.02 K, a thermal conductivity λ (4.2 K) = 6.9 ± 0.7 W/mK, a residual resistance Rres = 19.0 ± 0.3 nΩ and a superconducting energy gap of ∆/kBTc = 1.82 ± 0.01 have been measured. At 4.2 K we achieved a calorimetric detection limit for Rs of 0.16 nΩ at a peak field of 25 mT. |
