Crystal undulator as a new compact source of radiation

Abstract

Crystalline undulators with periodically deformed crystallographic planes offer coherent electromagnetic fields on the order of 1000 T and provide undulator period L in submillimeter range. We present an idea for creation of a crystalline undulator and report its realization. One face of a silicon crystal was given periodic microscratches (grooves) by means of a diamond blade, with a period ranging from 0.1 to 0.5 mm in different samples. The x-ray tests of the crystal deformation have shown that a sinusoidal-like shape of crystalline planes goes through the bulk of the crystals. This opens up the possibility for experiments with high-energy particles channeled in the crystalline undulator, a new compact source of radiation. The first experiments on photon emission in the crystal undulator are in preparation at IHEP (Protvino) with 2–15 GeV positrons and at LNF (Frascati) with 500–800 MeV positrons, aiming to produce undulator photons in the range of 50–500 keV. The results of Monte Carlo simulations for the planned experiments are presented as well.