USE OF CHANNELING RADIATION AS A NOVEL, POWERFUL ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION SOURCE

SFA, INC. PROPOSES TO INVESTIGATE THE FEASIBILITY OF USING CHANNELING RADIATION (CR) AS A NOVEL, POWERFUL SOURCE OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION FOR A VARIETY OF IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC AND COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS. CR IS THE RADIATIONEMITTED BY RELATIVISTIC ELECTRON (OR POSITRON) BEAMS MADE TO TRAVERSE THIN SINGLE CRYSTALS IN DIRECTIONS CLOSE TO MAJOR CRYSTAL PLANES OR AXES. PREDICTED THEORETICALLY IN 1976 BY M.A. KUMAKHOV OF MOSCOW STATE UNIVERSITY, ITS EXISTENCE WAS SHOWN EXPERIMENTALLY AT HIGH ENERGIES (GREATERTHAN 1 GEV PARTICLE ENERGY) BY MIROSHNICHENKO ET AL. AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY, AND AT LOW ENERGIES (TENS OF MEV) BY BERMAN ET AL. AT LAWRENCE LIVERMORE LABORATORY. SEVERAL HUNDRED PUBLICATIONS, MAINLY IN THE SOVIET UNION, PRESENT THEORETICAL STUDIES, AND A HUNDRED OR SO (ONE-THIRD SOVIET, ONE-THIRD AMERICAN) DESCRIBE EXPERIMENTS ON THIS PHENOMENON. THE LITERATURE CHARACTERIZES CR AS A MONOCHROMATIC, TUNABLE X-RAY OR GAMMA RADIATION (KEV TO TENSOF MEV ENERGY) AND PRESENTS FAVORABLE COMPARISONS OF CR INTENSITY WITH THAT OF OTHER RADIATION TYPES (SYNCHROTRON RADIATION, ORDINARY OR COHERENT BREMSSTRAHLUNG, AND TRANSITION RADIATION). HOWEVER, NO SUBSEQUENT DEVELOPMENT OF A CR SOURCE HAS BEEN PURSUED. A DOZEN OR MORE POTENTIAL SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS OF CR HAVE BEEN PROPOSED, YET ONLY A FEW OF THE SCIENTIFIC APPLICATIONS (E.G., THE STUDY OF CRYSTAL STRUCTURE OR OF THE CR PRODUCTION MECHANISM) HAVE BEEN REALIZED TO DATE. THE PROPOSED PHASE I STUDY WILL EVALUATE THE FEASIBILITY OF CR AS A RADIATION SOURCE, BOTH IN GENERAL AND FOR SPECIFIC SCIENTIFIC AND COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS. THE WORK WILL INVOLVE INVESTIGATING THE SUITABILITY OF EXISTING ELECTRON AND POSITRON ACCELERATORS AND OF TARGET CRYSTAL TYPES, AS WELL AS CALCULATING CR TRANSITION LINE INTENSITIES. THE COMPLETION OF THE PHASE I EFFORT WILL PROVE THE FEASIBILITY OF USING CR AS A SOURCE FOR MANY IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL APPLICATIONS.