The low-energy electron cooler for the Cryogenic Storage Ring

The Cryogenic Storage Ring (CSR) at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany, is being commissioned. CSR will be an ideal tool for preparing and studying cold atomic and molecular ions using ion beams of 20-300 keV kinetic energy (per ion charge unit). As a first important upgrade CSR will be equipped with an electron cooler. Latter is designed for cooling beams with a charge-to-mass ratio q/m of 1 to 1/160 e/aμ. This corresponds to an electron beam energy range of 1 to 163 eV. The beam will be produced by a cryogenic photocathode and electron temperatures in the co-moving frame reach down to 10 K. The cooler can also be used as an electron target by detuning the electrons' kinetic energy. This allows precision experiments on low-energy collisions between cold electrons and stored atomic and molecular ions using counting and imaging detectors. The design and the status of the setup are presented.