Strong enhancement of electromagnetic shower development induced by high-energy photons in a thick oriented tungsten crystal

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that aligning a tungsten crystal along its lattice axes significantly enhances electromagnetic shower development from high-energy photons, potentially improving photon absorption and calorimeter design.

Contribution

The paper introduces experimental evidence and Monte Carlo simulations showing enhanced electromagnetic showers in oriented tungsten crystals, a novel approach for high-energy photon detection.

Findings

Over twofold increase in energy deposition at 100 GeV in aligned crystal

Significant rise in secondary particle production due to axial electric field

Potential applications in compact calorimeters and beam dumps

Abstract

We have observed a significant enhancement in the energy deposition by $25$--$100~\mathrm{GeV}$ photons in a $1~\mathrm{cm}$ thick tungsten crystal oriented along its $\langle 111 \rangle$ lattice axes. At $100~\mathrm{GeV}$, this enhancement, with respect to the value observed without axial alignment, is more than twofold. This effect, together with the measured huge increase in secondary particle generation is ascribed to the acceleration of the electromagnetic shower development by the strong axial electric field. The experimental results have been critically compared with a newly developed Monte Carlo adapted for use with crystals of multi-$X_0$ thickness. The results presented in this paper may prove to be of significant interest for the development of high-performance photon absorbers and highly compact electromagnetic calorimeters and beam dumps for use at the energy and intensity frontiers.