Impact of the superconductors properties on the measurement sensitivity of resonant-based axion detectors

Andrea Alimenti; Kostiantyn Torokhtii; Daniele Di Gioacchino; Claudio Gatti; Enrico Silva; Nicola Pompeo

doi:10.3390/instruments6010001

paper

Impact of the superconductors properties on the measurement sensitivity of resonant-based axion detectors

arXiv:2112.12775 · doi:10.3390/instruments6010001

Abstract

Axions, hypothetical particles theorized to solve the strong CP-problem, are presently being considered as strong candidates as cold dark matter constituents. The signal power of resonant-based axion detectors, known as haloscopes, is directly proportional to their quality factor $Q$ . In this paper, the impact of the use of superconductors in the performances of the haloscopes is studied by evaluating the obtainable $Q$ . In particular, the surface resistance $R_{s}$ of NbTi, Nb $_{3}$ Sn, YBa $_{2}$ Cu $_{3}$ O $_{7 - δ}$ and FeSe $_{0.5}$ Te $_{0.5}$ is computed in the frequency, magnetic field and temperature ranges of interest, starting from the measured vortex motion complex resistivity and screening lengths of these materials. From $R_{s}$ the quality factor $Q$ of a cylindrical haloscope with copper conical bases and superconductive lateral wall, operating with the TM $_{010}$ mode, is evaluated and used to perform a comparison of the performances of the different materials. Both YBa $_{2}$ Cu $_{3}$ O $_{7 - δ}$ and FeSe $_{0.5}$ Te $_{0.5}$ are shown to improve the measurement sensitivity by almost an order of magnitude with respect to a whole Cu cavity, while NbTi is shown to be suitable only at lower frequencies (<10 GHz). Nb $_{3}$ Sn can give an intermediate improvement in the whole spectrum of interest.

15 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Instruments journal (published by MDPI)

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Cited by in corpus (1)

Microwave Vortex Motion Characterization of Nb $_{3}$ Sn Coatings for Applications in High Magnetic Fields