Tests of a prototype magnetostrictive tuner for superconducting cavities

The Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator (CEBA) uses mechanical tuners at 2 K driven by room temperature stepping motors in a feedback loop to maintain cavity frequency at 1497 MHz. Modification of the system was designed, replacing a passive section of the mechanical tuner with a magnetostrictive tuning element consisting of a Ni rod and an industrially supplied 0.25 T superconducting solenoid. This assembly was tested with several magnetic shield configurations designed to keep the stray flux at the Nb cavity below 1 {mu}T when the cavity was normal, to maintain cavity Q. Results of the tests, including change in cavity performance when the cavity was locally quenched near the end of the solenoid, showed that the a multi-layer shield of 6mm steel, with sheets of mu metal, niobium and my metal spaced appropriately outside the thick steel, was effective in containing the flux, both remanent and current-driven, preventing any change in cavity Q upon cooldown or quench with an external heater near the solenoid end. Hysteresis attributed to the Ni magnetostrictive element was observed