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.
@article{arxiv.1311.4674,
title = {Steering efficiency of a ultrarelativistic proton beam in a thin bent crystal},
author = {Enrico Bagli and Laura Bandiera and Vincenzo Guidi and Andrea Mazzolari and Davide De Salvador and Alessandro Berra and Daniela Lietti and Michela Prest and Erik Vallazza},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1311.4674},
year = {2014}
}