We review recent experimental and theoretical progress made in the scope of
swift highly charged ion channelling in crystals. The usefulness of such
studies is their ability to yield impact parameter information on charge
transfer processes, and also on some time related problems. We discuss the
cooling and heating phenomena at MeV/u energies, results obtained with
decelerated H-like ion beams at GSI and with ions having an excess of electrons
at GANIL, the superdensity effect along atomic strings and Resonant Coherent
Excitation.Comment: to be published in Journal of Physics