How to Achieve the Best SRF Performance: (Practical) Limitations and Possible Solutions

This chapter presents in the first part the requirement for the surface preparation of RF Niobium cavities and its justification in term s of physical origin of limitation (e.g. cleanliness and field emission, influence of the surface treatments, morphology and surface damage, etc.). In the second part we discuss the different models describing the ultimate limits of SRF cavities, and we present one of the possible ways to overcome Niobium monopoly toward higher performances.