Channeling efficiency in a target-crystal assembly

In view of possible future fixed target experiments requiring precisely steered charged particle beams, the UA9 Collaboration has undertaken experimental studies of the use of bent silicon crystals for this purpose. The channeling efficiency of positively charged particles inside the crystalline lattice has been investigated in detail for a setup with a tungsten target installed in front of the crystal. Due to multiple Coulomb scattering inside the target, the channeling efficiency was observed to be reduced by a factor of about 6.1 for a 180 GeV/c quasi-parallel hadron beam. The yield of nuclear interaction secondaries as an estimation of the additional machine background is also discussed.