Channeling efficiency reduction in high dose neutron irradiated silicon crystals for high energy and high intensity beam collimation and extraction

International audienceThe channeling process in bent silicon crystals are used since '70s to manipulate beams of high energy particles. During the last decade, several studies and experiments carried out by the UA9 Collaboration at CERN demonstrated the possibility to use bent crystals for beam collimation, extraction, focusing and splitting in particle accelerators. These crystals are subject to deterioration due to the interaction of the particles with the crystal lattice, degrading the beam steering performance. For this reason, robustness tests are crucial to estimate their reliability and operational lifetime. A ∼8% of reduction in channeling efficiency on crystals irradiated with $2.5·10^{21}/\textrm{cm}^2$ thermal neutrons was measured and reported in this manuscript. Extrapolations to possible operational scenarios in high energy accelerators are also discussed

Angular asymmetry of the nuclear interaction probability of high energy particles in short bent crystals

The rate of inelastic nuclear interactions in a short bent silicon crystal was precisely measured for the first time using a 180 GeV/c positive hadron beam produced in the North Experimental Area of the CERN SPS. An angular asymmetry dependence on the crystal orientation in the vicinity of the planar channeling minimum has been observed. For the inspected crystal, this probability is about $$\sim 20\%$$ larger than in the amorphous case because of the atomic density increase along the particle trajectories in the angular range of volume reflection, whose dimension is determined by the crystal bending angle. Instead, for the opposite angular orientation with respect to the planar channeling, there is a smaller probability excess of $$\sim 4\%$$

High-efficiency deflection of high-energy protons through axial channeling in a bent crystal

Beam deflection due to axial channeling in a silicon crystal bent along the axis was observed with 400 GeV/c protons at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. The condition for doughnut scattering of protons by the atomic strings of the crystal was attained. Such a condition allowed one to observe a beam deflection of 50 microrad with about 30% efficiency. The contribution of hyperchanneled states of protons to the observed beam deflection was less than 2% according to simulation results

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Deflection due to planar channeling and volume reflection in short bent silicon crystals was observed for the first time for 150 GeV/c negative particles, π− mesons, at one of the secondary beams of the CERN SPS. The deflection efficiency was about 30% for channeling and higher than 80% for volume reflection. Volume reflection occurs, in spite of the attractive character of the forces acting between the particles and the crystal planes, in a wide angular range of the crystal orientations determined by the crystal bend angle

Probability of inelastic nuclear interactions of high-energy protons in a bent crystal

Probability of inelastic nuclear interactions in a short bent silicon crystal for its orientations optimal for channeling and volume reflection was investigated using 400 GeV/c protons of the CERN SPS. The contribution of nuclear interactions from channeled protons was observed to be about 3–4% of the probability for the amorphous orientation. For the crystal orientation optimal for volume reflection the nuclear interaction probability of protons was a few percents larger than in the amorphous case. It was shown that in the limiting case of a quasi parallel beam realizing for the collider beam halo the inelastic nuclear losses should decrease by more than five times, which is an additional advantage of a crystal as a primary collimator for the LHC collimation system

Channeling efficiency in a target-crystal assembly

International audienceIn view of possible future fixed target experiments requiring precisely steered charged particle beams, the UA9 Collaboration has undertaken experimental studies of the use of bent silicon crystals for this purpose. The channeling efficiency of positively charged particles inside the crystalline lattice has been investigated in detail for a setup with a tungsten target installed in front of the crystal. Due to multiple Coulomb scattering inside the target, the channeling efficiency was observed to be reduced by a factor of about 6.1 for a 180 GeV/c quasi-parallel hadron beam. The yield of nuclear interaction secondaries as an estimation of the additional machine background is also discussed

Double-crystal setup measurements at the CERN SPS

In this paper, we discuss an experimental layout for the two-crystals scenario at the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) accelerator. The research focuses on a fixed target setup at the circulating machine in a frame of the Physics Beyond Colliders (PBC) project at CERN. The UA9 experiment at the SPS serves as a testbench for the proof of concept, which is planning to be projected onto the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) scale. The presented in the text configuration was used for the quantitative characterization of the deflected particle beam by a pair of bent silicon crystals. For the first time in the double-crystal configuration, a particle deflection efficiency by the second crystal of $0.188 \pm 3 \cdot 10^{-5}$ and $0.179 \pm 0.013$ was measured on the accelerator by means of the Timepix detector and Beam Loss Monitor (BLM) respectively. In this setup, a wide range angular scan allowed a possibility to \textit{in situ} investigate different crystal working regimes (channeling, volume reflection, etc.), and to measure a bent crystal torsion

The UA9 setup for the double-crystal experiment in CERN-SPS

International audienceExperiments to measure the electric and the magnetic moments of short-lived baryons using an internal target and two bent crystals in the vicinity of one of the existing LHC detectors were recently proposed, in the frame of the Physics Beyond Colliders Working Group at CERN. Investigating fixed-target physics in the LHC with in-vacuum solid targets is an unprecedented challenge. As a preparatory step, the layout of the UA9 experiment, installed in the CERN SPS to explore beam manipulations assisted by bent crystals, has been modified to study the feasibility of the double-crystal scenario in a circular accelerator. Ideally, the first crystal should capture halo protons in channeling states directing them onto the internal target to produce rare baryons, whilst the second crystal, located just downstream of the target, should channel the baryons, rotate their polarization vector and deflect them towards the detector area. The upgraded UA9 layout is presented. Preliminary measurements providing an insight of the beam behavior are reported

Double-crystal measurements at the CERN SPS

International audienceThe UA9 setup, installed in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) at CERN, was exploited for a proof of principle of the double-crystal scenario, proposed to measure the electric and the magnetic moments of short-lived baryons in a high-energy hadron collider, such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Linear and angular actuators were used to position the crystals and establish the required beam configuration. Timepix detectors and high-sensitivity Beam Loss Monitors were exploited to observe the deflected beams. Linear and angular scans allowed exploring the particle interactions with the two crystals and recording their efficiency. The measured values of the beam trajectories, profiles and of the channeling efficiency agree with the results of a Monte-Carlo simulation