Optimum Parameters for Electron Cooling

In modern accumulator/storage rings, electron cooling has become an indispensable tool to obtain high quality ion beams with long lifetimes. Many parameters influence the quality of the cooling process: electron-ion beam alignment, electron beam intensity, the length of the cooling section and the ring lattice parameters. The influence of these parameters on the cooling time was studied experimentally with protons and Pb ions in the LEAR ring in two separate 'machine development' sessions during 1996 and 1997. We present the results of these measurements and compare them to what one expects from conventional electron cooling theory