The Heidelberg heavy ion storage ring

During the first quarter of 1988 the main parts of the storage ring were assembled and commissioning of the ring started. After the installation of the bump magnets for multiturn injection the first storage test was done on May 27th 1988. Operating at a magnetic rigidity of 0.71 Tm a 73 MeV C6+ beam was successfully injected and stored. Due to the vacuum of 10-8 mbar in the unbaked vacuum system the beam lifetime was measured to be τ=4.5 s. Since then 9 beam test have been performed to achieve the full performance of the TSR, e.g. optimization of working point, particle stacking by multiturn and rf stacking giving up to 1.1x1010 stored ions, chromatic correction of large momentum spread beams, measurements of various machine parameters, storing O8+, O7+, O6+, O5+, O3+, C6+, C5+, C4+, C3+ and Li+ beams at different magnetic rigidities. The activities culminated with the installation of the electron cooler in November when during a beam test on November 17th a cooled C6+ beam was circulating in the machine; the initial momentum spread of 2% (rf stacked beam) being cooled down to 2x10-4 in 2 s. Thus time had come to start with first atomic physics experients in December 1988. (orig.)