Cryogenic and vacuum technological aspects of the low-energy electrostatic cryogenic storage ring

The cryogenic and vacuum concepts for the electrostatic Cryogenic ion Storage Ring (CSR), under construction at the Max-Planck-Institut fur Kernphysik in Heidelberg, is presented. The ring will operate in a broad temperature range from 2 to 300 K and is required to be bakeable up to 600 K. Extremely high vacuum and low temperatures are necessary to achieve long lifetimes of the molecular ions stored in the ring so that the ions will have enough time to cool by radiation to their vibrational and rotational ground states. To test cryogenic and vacuum technological aspects of the CSR, a prototype is being built and will be connected to the commercial cryogenic refrigerator recently installed, including a specialized 2-K connection system. The first results and the status of current work with the prototype are also presented.