Intensive gamma-ray light sources based on oriented single crystals

Abstract

The feasibility of gamma-ray light sources based on the channeling phenomenon of ultra-relativistic electrons and positrons in oriented single crystals is demonstrated using rigorous numerical modeling. Case studies are presented for 10 GeV and sub-GeV $e^{-}/e^{+}$ beams incident on $10^{-1}-10^0$ mm thick diamond and silicon crystals. It is shown that for moderate values of the beam average current ($\lesssim 10$ $\hat{I}¼$A) the average photon flux in the energy range $10^0-10^2$ MeV emitted within the $10^1-10^3$ $\hat{I}¼$rad cone and 1 \% bandwidth can be on the level of $10^{10}$ photon/s for electrons and $10^{10}-10^{12}$ photon/s for positrons. These values are higher than the fluxes available at modern laser-Compton gamma ray light sources.

24 pages (RevTex), 8 figures