Improvement of cavity performance by electropolishing in the 1.3 GHz Nb superconducting cavities

A steep drop of the cavity quality factor (Q/sub 0/) at high electric field has been observed frequently in chemically-polished and high-pressure-rinsed Saclay cavities, even in the absence of field emission. Three single-cell cavities from Saclay were tested at KEK following electropolishing and high pressure rinsing. This treatment eliminated the steep Q/sub 0/ drop, the quench field increased to an accelerating gradient of more than 30 MV/m with a quality factor above 2/spl times/10/sup 10/. No dependence of the quench field on the niobium RRR was observed between RRR=200 and 320 in electropolished cavities.