Basic principles of RF superconductivity and superconducting cavities

The basics of superconductivity are outlined with special emphasis on the features which are relevant for the application of superconductors in radio frequency cavities for particle acceleration. For a cylindrical resonator (“pill box cavity”) the electromagnetic field in the cavity and important parameters such as resonance frequency, quality factor and shunt impedance are calculated analytically. The design and performance of practical cavities is shortly addressed.