Laser Cooling at ESR, CSR and FAIR

Laser cooling of ion beams is a promising technique to achieve ultracold ion beams of unprecedented brilliance in storage rings. Recent experiments at the ESR/GSI have shown that laser cooling at relativistic beam energies is feasible, opening the route towards laser cooling at future storage rings such as SIS300/FAIR. In this talk we present recent results on laser cooling of C3+ ion beams at the ESR. The results presented show that with laser-cooling space-charge dominated ion beams are observed with at least one order of magnitude smaller momentum spread than attained with electron cooling. This allows to reach the regime of strong coupling, which is a prerequisite for beam crystallization. Based on these results we present new experiments planned at ESR and CSR which will take full advantage of all-optical beam diagnostics that will allow to overcome the limited resolution of standard ion beam diagnostics. In combination with all-optical cooling schemes which do not rely on initial electron cooling of the ion beam, laser cooling is one of the most promising candidates for cooling ion beams at ultra-relativistic energies accessible at the future FAIR facility.