TH-PHD-2013-001

The objectice of this thesis was the construction and investigation of a cluster jet target which meet the requirements of modern storage ring experiments concerning the geometry and the target thickness. At first the cluster jet target MCT1 was built up and commissioned successfully. By optimizing this target a target thickness was achieved at a distance of two meters between the cluster source and the interaction point that was previously only achieved at a third of this distance. Thereafter a second cluster source, the MCT2, was designed, constructed and operated which is the prototype for the cluster jet target of the future experiment PANDA at the accelerator complex FAIR in Darmstadt. With this cluster source a target thickness close to 1015 atoms/cm3 was reached at a distance of 2 m behind the nozzle of the cluster source.
In addition to the construction and operation of the two cluster jet targets the properties of the generated clusters were investigated. In this work the measurement of distribution of the cluster velocity is of particular interest. A quasi-one-dimensional model of the flow through the nozzle using the van der Waals equation of state was established which reproduces the mean cluster velocity with a good accuracy. The comparison between this model and the experimental data lead to important information concerning the cluster production process.