Atomistic modelling of electron propagation and radiation emission in oriented bent ultra-thin Si and Ge crystals

TL;DR

This study uses relativistic molecular dynamics to simulate high-energy electron propagation in bent ultra-thin silicon and germanium crystals, comparing results with experimental data to understand radiation emission and electron deflection.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed computational model for electron-crystal interactions in bent ultra-thin crystals, validated against experimental measurements.

Findings

Good agreement between simulations and experiments for electron angular distributions.

The model accurately predicts radiation spectra emitted during electron propagation.

Discrepancies are analyzed and discussed in the context of the simulation assumptions.

Abstract

Computational modelling of passage of high-energy electrons through crystalline media is carried out by means of the relativistic molecular dynamics. The results obtained are compared with the experimental data for 855 MeV electron beam incident on oriented bent ultra-thin (15 microns) silicon and germanium crystals. The simulations have been performed for the geometries of the beam--crystal orientation that correspond (i) to the channeling regime and (ii) to the volume reflection. A comparison with the experiment is carried out in terms of angular distributions of the electrons deflected by the crystals bent with different curvature radii as well as of the spectra of the emitted radiation. For both crystals a good agreement between the simulated and experimentally measured data is reported. The origin of remaining minor discrepancies between theory and experiment is discussed.