N-Doped Surfaces of Superconducting Niobium Cavities as a Disordered Composite

The Q-factor of superconducting accelerating cavities can be substantially improved by a special heat treatment under N₂ atmosphere (N-doping). Recent experiments at Fermi National Laboratory investigated the dependence of Q on the RF frequency and showed, unexpectedly, both an increase and a decrease with the RF field amplitude. This paper shall explain this finding by extending a previously proposed model founded on the two fluid model of RF losses, percolation, and the proximity effect in a disordered composite.