Steering of an ultrarelativistic proton beam by a bent germanium crystal

Curved crystals, thanks to the electrostatic potential generated by the coherent atomic structure, may deflect ultrarelativistic charged particles by means of channeling and volume reflection effects. Most of the experimental knowledge about these phenomena was gathered with Si crystals, though the performance could be improved by using materials with a larger atomic number. In this letter, we investigate planar and axial channeling and volume reflection in a high quality Ge short strip crystal. All the effects are demonstrated to occur in agreement with theoretical expectations, which take into account the stronger confinement potential for an ideal Ge crystal. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.