Observation of high deflection efficiency and narrow energy loss distributions for 450 GeV protons channeled in a bent silicon crystal

Abstract A 450 GeV proton beam has been deflected by various angles from 1 to 11 mrad using planar channeling in a (111) silicon crystal which was mechanically bent to achieve the desired beam deflection. High deflection efficiencies of up to 50% have been measured, in good agreement with present theoretical estimates. It is shown that bent crystals are also a unique tool for measurements of energy loss and straggling of channeled particles, without any influence from random particles: Selecting protons which are deflected by increasing angles corresponds to decreasing the transverse energy at the crystal entrance. With this technique energy loss and straggling was measured for protons channeled in the wide and narrow (111) planes in silicon for the first time.