PIEZOELECTRIC TUNER COMPENSATION OF LORENTZ DETUNING IN

SUPERCONDUCTING CAVITIES *
J. R. Delayen, G. K. Davis, Jefferson Lab, 12000 Jefferson Ave, Newport News, VA 23606, USA
Abstract
Pulsed operation of superconducting cavities can induce
large variations of the resonant frequency through
excitation of the mechanical modes by the radiation
pressure. The phase and amplitude control system must be
able to accommodate this frequency variation; this can be
accomplished by increasing the capability of the rf power
source. Alternatively, a piezo electric tuner can be
activated at the same repetition rate as the rf to counteract
the effect of the radiation pressure. We have demonstrated
such a system on the prototype medium beta SNS
cryomodule with a reduction of the dynamic Lorentz
detuning during the rf pulse by a factor of 3. Piezo electric
tuners can also be used to reduce the level of
microphonics in low-current cw accelerators. We have
measured the amplitude and phase of the transfer function
of the piezo control system (from input voltage to cavity
frequency) up to several kHz.

Med CM, Cavity 2, Pulse Response, 60Hz, 1.3mS, 10MV/m

500

400

300

200

100

-0.001 -0.0005

0.0005

0.001

0.0015

0.002

0.0025

0.003

0.0035

0.004

-100

-1

-200

-2
Time (sec)

Figure 1: Dynamic Lorentz detuning during pulsed

operation

DYNAMIC LORENTZ DETUNING

PIEZO TUNER TRANSFER FUNCTION

SNS will be the first large-scale use of superconducting

cavities in a pulsed accelerator. Although the cavities will
be strongly beam-loaded the dynamic Lorentz detuning is
expected to be a substantial fraction of the bandwidth and
the phase and amplitude control under these conditions
will require additional amounts of rf power. During tests
of the SNS prototype cryomodule [1,2], the dynamic
behavior of the frequencies of the three cavities was
measured and the use of a piezo tuner for its
compensation was evaluated.
The measurements were made with a cavity resonance
monitor (CRM) [3]. The CRM has a 50 dB dynamic
range, so it can measure the cavity frequency during the
rise and decay of the fields, but we do not have, at
present, the ability to measure the frequency between
pulses. This would require maintaining a small, but finite,
rf field in the cavity. Measurements of the static Lorentz
detuning and of the Lorentz transfer functions are
presented in another contribution to this conference [4].
A typical measurement of the dynamic Lorentz
detuning for an SNS pulse is shown in Fig. 1. In that
figure, and all similar ones, the transients at the beginning
and the end are associated with the phase-lock loop
acquiring and losing lock and are not significant.

The transfer function (phase and amplitude) from input

voltage of the amplifier driving the piezo to cavity
frequency was measured. This was done by sweeping the
frequency of the drive modulation, and measuring
simultaneously the phase and amplitude of the frequency
modulation.
For cavity 2 we measured the transfer function for the
two extreme positions of the slow mechanical tuner (Fig.
2). Subtle but real differences in the responses were
observed.

____________________________________________

* Work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, contract DEAC05-84ER401050

Piezo Transfer Function at Two Extremes of Coarse Tuner

Med Cryomodule Prototype, Cavity Position 2, 3.5 MV/m CW
50
40
30

355
359

20

430
436

10
0
-10
-20
-30
0

60

120

180

240

300

360

420

480

Sinusoidal Drive Frequency (Hz)

Figure 2: Amplitude of the PZT transfer function at two

extremes of the mechanical tuner position
The behavior of the piezo tuner transfer function was
somewhat unexpected and is not, at present, fully
understood. First, the transfer functions of the 3 cavities

were substantially different one from the other; some

strong resonances that were present in one cavity were
absent in others (Fig. 3). It should be pointed out that the
transfer function includes the driver amplifier for the
piezo, the piezo itself, and the mechanical modes of the
cavity. Separation of the various contributions will require
further testing.
Cavity Pos 1, Piezo Transfer Function
40

540

157.61
70.83

30

450
100.75

122.70
113.72

20

Next, the same cavity was retested using a dynamic

signal analyzer to compute the frequency response
function from an impulse. The impulse response was
measured by driving the piezo with a 500msec pulse at a 1
second pulse repetition rate. Appropriate windowing is
applied to the time domain signals. The analyzer then
computes the ratio of the resulting FFTs. The resulting
data shows a +180 phase shift, contrary to the previous
swept sine measurement. Reasons for this apparent
contradiction are under investigation. Identical tests on
another cavity position produced a -180 phase shift for
both tests.

360

10

270

180

SNS M03, Cavity Position 1, Piezo Transfer Function (Swept Sine)

0

90

-20

-30

-90

-40

-180
0

60

120

180

240

300

360

Frequency (Hz)

Cavity Response to Piezo, Swept Sinudoid, Drive Amplitude = 26Vpp

Med B Cryomodule Prototype, Cavity Position 2, 804.612MHz, 3.5 MV/m CW

168

40

236

75

30

-20
-120

-25
-30
-35
-40

-240

-50

185.0 185.1 185.2 185.3 185.4 185.5 185.6 185.7 185.8 185.9 186.0

266
358

100

20

-15

-45
540

50

-10
Relative Phase (deg)

-10

Cavity Detuning, Response

Ratio (dB)

-5

383

Piezo Drive Frequency (Hz)

360 436

10

SNS M03, Cavity Position 1, Piezo Transfer Function (Impulse Response)

180

240

40

-10
199

-40

30
120

20

-180

-50
0

60

120

180

240

300

360

Cavity Position 3, Piezo Transfer Function

163

40
30

540

0
-120

-10
-240

-20

361

72

360

20

10

Sinusoidal Drive Frequency (Hz)

Relative Phase (deg)

-30

Cavity Detuning, Response

Ratio (dB)

-20

60

120

180

240

300

360

420

Piezo Drive Frequency (Hz)

10
180

0
-10

Figure 4: Phase response in the area near 180 Hz antiresonance using two measurement techniques differs.

-20
-30

-180

-40
0

60

120

180

240

300

360

Impulse Time Response

Piezo Drive Frequency (Hz)

Figure 3: Phase and amplitude of the piezo transfer

functions for the 3 cavities.

Phase Response Near Anti-Resonance

Frequency resolution was increased by sweeping the
system from 185 Hz to 186 Hz in 400 equally spaced
increments. Figure 4 clearly shows that the swept sine
results in a -180 phase shift.

The piezo impulse time response was recorded and

time-averaged to remove uncorrelated noise such as
background microphonics. Differences in the time
response are notable in the detail of Fig 5. The same two
cavities are compared in the frequency domain in Fig 6.
These differences suggest that the low-level RF control
system will have to be flexible enough to adapt to
individual cavity characteristics.

PULSED OPERATION OF THE PIEZO

TUNER

M03 Cavity 1 Impuse Time Response

0.00

Cavity Detuning (Hz)

-0.50
-1.00
-1.50
-2.00
-2.50
-3.00
-3.50
0.00

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05

0.040

0.050

Time (sec)

M03 Cavity 2 Impuse Time Response

1.50

Cavity Detuning (Hz)

1.00
0.50
0.00
-0.50
-1.00

The length of the rf and piezo pulses are much shorter

than the period of the dominant mechanical modes, so it
would be expected that the detail of the pulse shape would
have relatively little effect on the dynamic behavior of the
cavity frequency. Furthermore the decay time of the
dominant modes is much larger than the spacing between
the pulses, thus it would be expected that the cavities
would be in a perpetual state of ringing. This is
demonstrated in Fig. 7. Cavity 2 was operated CW and
the piezo tuner was activated at 60 Hz, in a similar
fashion and amplitude that would be needed to
compensate for the Lorentz detuning. The response of the
cavity frequency was relatively insensitive to the rise time
of the piezo pulse, but it was also essentially periodic.
Consequenly, for the short duration of the rf pulse, the
piezo pulse can be used to compensate for the Lorentz
detuning which would have a similar complex, but
periodic, behavior by carefully adjusting the timing
between the two.

-1.50
-2.00
0.000

0.010

0.020

0.030

Cavity Position 2 Response to Piezo Pulses at 1.28 ms

pulse width; 160 usec rise time; 60 Hz

Time (sec)
700

Figure 5: Impulse time response for different cavity

position in the cryomodule.

500

300

SNS M03, Cavity Position 1, Piezo Transfer Function (Swept Sine)

-120

30

-240

20

-360

10

-480

-600

-10

-720

-100

Relative Phase (deg)

Cavity Detuning, Response

Ratio (dB)

100

40

-840

-20
0

60

120

180

240

300

360

SNS M03, Cavity Position 2, Piezo Transfer Function (Swept Sine)

180
60
Cavity Detuning, Response
Ratio (dB)

-180
-300

20

-420
-540

10

-660
-780

-900

Relative Phase (deg)

-60

30

-1020

-10

-1140
-1260

-20
0

60

120

180

240

300

360

0.00

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05

0.06

0.07

0.08

0.09

0.10

Time (sec)

Figure 7: Cavity frequency variation induced by a 60

Hz excitation of the piezo tuner similar to that which
would be needed to compensate for the rf-induced
Lorentz detuning.

420

Piezo Drive Frequency (Hz)

40

-300

420

Piezo Drive Frequency (Hz)

Figure 6: Frequency response for different cavity position

in the cryomodule.

Of concern for use of the piezo tuner to control

microphonics is the amount of microphonics that it can
generate during activation. The frequency of cavity 2 was
measured while activating the piezo tuner with a slow (1
or 2 Hz) trapezoidal signal with rise time of 0, 5, 10, and
20 msec. A square wave (0 rise time) generates
microphonics of the same order of magnitude as the
steady state displacement it induces; these microphonics
then decay in about 400 msec (Fig. 8). In order for the
microphonics to be less than 50 % of the steady state
displacement, the ramp time of the trapezoidal drive must
be at least 5 msec.

Cavity Pos. 2 Piezo Response, 1 Hz Square Wave

500
400
300
200
100
0
-100

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

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0.8

0.9

-200
-300
-400

The effectiveness of the piezo tuners in compensating

for the Lorentz detuning is shown in Fig. 9. A reduction
by a factor of 3 was easily achieved. The critical
parameter was the timing between the rf pulse and the
piezo pulse. Similar reduction was achieved by changing
the polarity of the piezo drive signal by adjusting the
timing. It should be noted that this compensation takes
place only during the short rf pulse. Although we do not
have the ability to measure it, it is likely that the cavity
frequency undergoes large transients between the rf
pulses.

-500
Time (sec)

REFERENCES

Cavity Pos. 2 Piezo Response @ 5ms rise time; 2 Hz

500
400
300
200
100
0
-100

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

-200
-300
-400
-500
Time (sec)

Figure 8: Cavity response to piezo square- and

trapezoidal- wave (5 msec rise time) excitation

PIEZO TUNER COMPENSATION OF

DYNAMIC LORENTZ DETUNING

Cavity # 2 @ 10 MV/m, with and without piezo

compensation
400

300

0.8

200

0.6

100

0.4

0.2

-100

-200

-0.2
0

0.0005

0.001

0.0015

0.002

0.0025

0.003

Time (sec)

Figure 9: Cavity frequency without (red) and with

(blue) piezo tuner compensation. Green: energy
content.

[1] Jean Delayen, Ed Daly, Kirk Davis, Steve Smee,

Frequency Measurements on the Prototype SNS
Medium- Cryomodule Under Pulsed and CW
Operation, JLab Tech Note 02-049.
[2] J. Preble, I. Campisi, E. Daly, G. K. Davis, J. R.
Delayen, M. Drury, C. Grenoble, J. Hogan, L. King,
P. Kneisel, J. Mammosser, T. Powers, M. Stirbet,
H. Wang, T. Witlatch, M. Wiseman, SNS
Cryomodule Performance, Proc. PAC 2003,
Portland, OR,
[3] G. Kirk Davis, Jean Delayen, Michael Drury, Thomas
Hiatt, Curt Hovater, Thomas Powers, Joseph Preble,
Microphonics Testing of the CEBAF Upgrade 7Cell Cavity, PAC 2001, Chicago, IL, 18-22 June
2001.
[4] J. R. Delayen, G. K. Davis, Microphonics and
Lorentz Transfer Function Measurements on the SNS
Cryomodules, these proceedings.