Emission of Photons at the Interaction of a High-Energy Electron Beam with a Sequence of Bent Single Crystals

A radiation source based on the emission of electrons and positrons moving in a short bent crystal has been recently discovered. The emission of particles is due to oscillations of their trajectories near the point of reflections, where trajectories approach a tangent to bent atomic planes. In the experiment performed with the secondary electron beam of the U70 accelerator, it has been shown that the emission intensity can be increased by using a sequence of oriented bent crystals. Passing through six 2.5-mm-long silicon crystals, 7-GeV electrons lose on average 2.0 GeV on emission. This value is several times larger than that in an amorphous medium. Thus, an intense source of radiation has been demonstrated with prospects of application at accelerators.