  The transport and cooling of noble gas singly-charged ion beams by means of a
Radio Frequency Quadrupole Cooler Buncher (RFQCB) have been studied at the
LIMBE low energy beam line of the GANIL facility. Ions as light as $^{4}He^+$
have been cooled and stored before their extraction in bunches using $H_2$ as
buffer gas. Bunches characteristics have been studied as a function of the
parameters of the device. Sizeable transmissions of up to 10 $% $ have been
obtained. A detailed study of the lifetime of ions inside the buncher has been
performed giving an estimate of the charge exchange cross-section. Results of a
microscopic Monte-Carlo transport code show reasonable agreement with
experimental data.
