Investigations on Dresden EBIS/T as charge breeders

Highly charged ions (HCI) have become an important tool in a wide range of basic and applied research activities. At HITRAP, a project realized by SPARC and other collaborations at GSI, HCI up to bare uranium will be decelerated to low energies enabling, for example, the determination of the g-factor of bound electrons, laser spectroskopy investigations on the hyperfine structure, or high precision measurements of the mass of stable as well as radioactive nuclii. In 2007 the SPARC-EBIT, a room temperature electron beam ion trab (EBIT) of the Dresden EBIT type, was installed at GSI as an offline injector for tests of the beamline components at HITRAP and the chance to carry out experiments without the request of beam time at GSI’s Experimental Storage Ring (ESR). To further improve the viability of the EBIT at this or other research facilities we have carried out general source characterization as well as charge breeding measurements. The results revealed details for a better understanding of the ionization process inside the trap region as well as ways of increasing the number of elements of which HCI can be produced with the EBIT. Furtheron, tests with the more powerful Dresden EBIS-A have started which will lateron be used to evaluate its performance in comparison to the small but highly efficient Dresden EBIT.