STRIPPING OF HIGH INTENSITY HEAVY-ION BEAMS IN A PULSED GAS STRIPPER DEVICE AT 1.4 MeV/u

As part of an injector system for FAIR, the GSI UNILAC has to meet high demands in terms of beam brilliance at a low duty factor. To accomplish this goal an extensive upgrade program has started. To increase the beam intensity behind the UNILAC, it is aimed to increase the efficiency of the 1.4 MeV/u gas stripper. A modification of the stripper setup was developed to replace the N2-jet with a pulsed gas injection, synchronized with the transit of the beam pulse. The pulsed gas injection lowers the gas load for the differential pumping system, rendering possible the use of other promising gas targets. In recent measurements the performance of the modified setup was tested using an 238 U-beam with various stripper media, including H2, He, and N2. The data provide a systematic basis for an improved understanding of slow heavy ions passing through gaseous media. The stripping performance of the current N2-jet was excelled by using H2 at increased gas densities, enabled by the new pulsed gas cell.