Possible high-frequency cavity and waveguide applications of high temperature superconductors

Conventional superconducting materials used at liquid helium temperatures have been employed to greatly reduce ohmic power loss in microwave cavities. If suitable high temperature superconductor surfaces can be developed, it could be possible to alleviate constraints due to relatively low energy gaps and limits due to critical fields, and operate at more convenient temperatures with larger thermal margins. These features could be used to improve performance of present superconducting microwave cavity devices. They may also facilitate new applications and device designs at millimeter-wave and far infrared frequencies. Possible cavity and waveguide applications are described. Sensitivity of RF surface resistance to boundaries and nonaligned grains in the material and to small amounts of nonsuperconducting material may be an obstacle to development. Moreover, critical RF fields can be limiting for high power applications. An additional problem is the adverse effect of D.C. magnetic fields.