Efficient, Indirect Transverse Laser Cooling of a Fast Stored Ion Beam.

Three-dimensional laser cooling of a fast stored ion beam has been demonstrated at the Heidelberg Test Storage Ring. With a purely longitudinal cooling force applied to a 7.3 MeV {sup 3}Be{sup +} beam, we have observed an efficient transverse cooling effect. We interpret this observation as being due to a thermal intrabeam relaxation between the different degrees of freedom that is caused by Coulomb collisions of the stored particles. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}