Eur. Phys. J. C (2014) 74: 2740
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-014-2740-7

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Steering efficiency of a ultrarelativistic proton beam in a thin bent crystal

¹ INFN Sezione di Ferrara, Dipartimento di Fisica e Scienze della Terra, Università di Ferrara, Via Saragat 1, 44122 , Ferrara, Italy
² INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Viale dell’Università 2, 35020 , Legnaro, Italy
³ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Padova, Via Marzolo 8, 35131 , Padua, Italy
⁴ Università dell’Insubria, via Valleggio 11, 22100 , Como, Italy
⁵ INFN Sezione di Milano Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 3, 20126 , Milan, Italy
⁶ INFN Sezione di Trieste, Via Valerio 2, 34127 , Trieste, Italy

^* e-mail: guidi@fe.infn.it

Received: 30 September 2013
Accepted: 16 December 2013
Published online: 28 January 2014

Abstract

Crystals with small thickness along the beam exhibit top performance for steering particle beams through planar channeling. For such crystals, the effect of nuclear dechanneling plays an important role because it affects their efficiency. We addressed the problem through experimental work carried out with 400 GeV/c protons at fixed-target facilities of CERN-SPS. The dependence of efficiency vs. curvature radius has been investigated and compared favourably to the results of modeling. A realistic estimate of the performance of a crystal designed for LHC energy including nuclear dechanneling has been achieved.