• P.J. Spiller, H. Eickhoff, H. Kollmus, P. Puppel, H. Reich-Sprenger
  GSI, Darmstadt
• L.H.J. Bozyk
  FIAS, Frankfurt am Main

After partially completing the upgrade program of SIS18, the number of intermediate charge state heavy ions accelerated to the FAIR booster energy of 200 MeV/u, could be increased by a factor of 50. Meanwhile, more than 10¹⁰ Uranium ions with charge state 27+ have been accelerated with moderate beam loss by ionization and reasonably stable residual gas pressure conditions. The specific challenge for the SIS18 booster operation is the high cross section for ionization due to the low charge state in combination with gas desorption processes and the dynamic vacuum pressure. Especially for this operation mode which is requied to match the intensity requirements for FAIR, an extended upgrade program of SIS18 is presently ongoing and partially completed. The achieved progress in minimizing the ionization beam loss underlines that the chosen technical strategies described in this report are appropriate.

• L.H.J. Bozyk
  TU Darmstadt, Darmstadt
• D.H.H. Hoffmann, H. Kollmus, P.J. Spiller
  GSI, Darmstadt

The central accelerator SIS100 of the FAIR-facility will provide high intensity, intermediate charge state heavy ion beams. In order to assure a reliable operation with the intermediate charge states, a special synchrotron design, including ion catcher system had to be developed. Intermediate charge state heavy ions suffer from high cross sections for ionization. Due to the dedicated synchrotron layout, ions which have been further stripped by collisions with residual gas atoms are not lost uncontrolled onto the beam pipe but are caught by the ion catcher system in the cryogenic arcs. The construction and test of a cryo-catcher prototype at GSI is a workpackage of the EU-FP7 project COLMAT. A prototype catcher including cryostat will be set-up at GSI to perform measurements with heavy ion beams of the heavy ion synchrotron SIS18.

• J. Stadlmann, H. Kollmus, E. Mustafin, I.J. Petzenhauser, P.J. Spiller, I. Strašík, N.A. Tahir, C. Trautmann
  GSI, Darmstadt
• L.H.J. Bozyk, M. Krause
  TU Darmstadt, Darmstadt
• M. Tomut
  INFIM, Bucharest

Within the frame of the EuCARD program, the GSI Darmstadt is performing accelerator R&D in workpackage 8: ColMat. The effort is focused on materials important for building the FAIR accelerator facility at GSI and the LHC upgrade at CERN. Accelerator components and especially protection devices have to be operated in high dose environments. The radiation hazard occurs either by the primary proton and ion beams or the secondary radiation. Detailed numerical simulations have been carried out to study the damage caused to solid targets by the full impact of the LHC beam as well as the SPS beam. Tungsten, copper and graphite targets have been studied. Experimental an theoretical studies on radiation damage on materials used for the LHC upgrade and the FAIR accelerators are performed at the present GSI experimental facilities. Technical decisions based on these results will have an impact on the FAIR component specifications. A cryogenic ion-catcher prototype will be constructed and tested. The ion-catcher is essential for reaching highest heavy ion beam intensities in SIS100. The prototype will be set-up at GSI to perform measurements with heavy ion beams of synchrotron SIS18.