A superconducting microwave cavity made of bulk MgB2

We report the successful manufacture and characterization of a microwave resonant cylindrical cavity made of bulk MgB2 superconductor (Tc ~ 38.5 K), which has been produced by the reactive liquid Mg infiltration technique. The quality factor of the cavity for the TE011 mode, resonating at 9.79 GHz, has been measured as a function of the temperature. At T = 4.2 K, the unloaded quality factor is 2.2 x 10^5; it remains of the order of 10^5 up to T ~ 30 K. We discuss the potential performance improvements of microwave cavities built from bulk MgB2 materials produced by reactive liquid Mg infiltration