HITRAP – a facility for experiments on heavy highly charged ions and on antiprotons

HITRAP is a facility for very slow highly-charged heavy ions at GSI. HITRAP uses the GSI relativistic ion beams, the Experimental Storage Ring ESR for electron cooling and deceleration to 4 MeV/u, and consists of a combination of an interdigital H-mode (IH) structure with a radiofrequency quadrupole structure for further deceleration to 6 keV/u, and a Penning trap for accumulation and cooling to low temperatures. Finally, ion beams with low emittance will be delivered to a large variety of atomic and nuclear physics experiments. Presently, HITRAP is in the commissioning phase. The deceleration of heavy-ion beam from the ESR storage ring to an energy of 500 keV/u with the IH structure has been demonstrated and studied in detail. The commissioning of the RFQ structure and the cooler trap is ongoing.