• H. Podlech, M. Amberg, M. Busch, F.D. Dziuba, U. Ratzinger, R. Tiede
  IAP, Frankfurt am Main
• W.A. Barth, S. Mickat
  GSI, Darmstadt

The search for Super-Heavy Elements (SHE) is one of the frontiers in nuclear physics. By trend the production cross sections decrease significantly for larger proton numbers and heavier nuclei, respectively. To limit the required beam time it is necessary to use the highest available intensity. This prefers cw operation and the use of superconducting cavities. A cw operated superconducting linac using CH-cavities at GSI has been designed. As front end the existing 10⁸ MHz High Charge Injector (HLI) will be used which is presently being upgraded for cw operation. The superconducting part of the linac covers the energy between 1.4 AMeV and 7.5 AMeV. It consists of 9 multi-cell CH-cavities operated at 217 MHz. Each cavity is optimized for a specific particle velocity but without beta profile. Above 3.5 AMeV the linac is fully energy variable. The first superconducting CH-cavity is already under construction and will be tested with beam delivered by the HLI. The talk covers the development of the prototypes and the overall design including beam dynamics issues.