Scattering in crystals with effective radiation length in the micron range

Abstract

In computer simulations we find that particles can scatter in bent crystal lattices with effective radiation length down to a few micron or 300-700 times shorter than in the corresponding amorphous materials. We derive a theoretical estimate independent of energy for the effective radiation length that is in agreement with our simulations for C, Si, Ge, and W crystal lattices. We show that in the ongoing collimation experiment at the Tevatron a crystal-based smart scattering material could outperform a channeling crystal in efficiency of collimation reducing the local background rate by a factor of 40.