Generation of high power heavy ion beams at GSI

Besides laser- and light ion beams, short pulse duration bunches of intense heavy ion beams are attractive to deposit high specific power in experimental targets. Such volume heated matter is transformed into a plasma state that is characterized by its high density. The GSI accelerator facility offers a unique possibility for the generation of such a solid state density plasma. After the installation of the new high current injector, intense beams of low charge state uranium ions (U/sup 28+/) will be available. To achieve high target power densities with these beams, a strong longitudinal compression has to be performed. For this purpose, a new type of RF compressor cavity has been developed for the heavy ion synchrotron SIS. In the framework of a machine development program, first tests of the required bunch manipulations have been done with the available SIS cavities.