Crystalline Undulator: Theory and Experiment (CUTE)

The FP7-PIRSES project CUTE aims to facilitate collaborative research on the theory, design, manufacture, and experimental testing of high-quality periodically bent crystalline structures, as well as theoretical and experimental studies of the radiation formed in crystalline undulators. The idea of the crystalline undulator is based on the channelling phenomenon. Its advantage is in extremely strong electrostatic fields inside a crystal, which can steer particles much more effectively than even the most advanced superconducting magnets. A crystal with periodically bent crystallographic planes or axes can force particles to move along nearly sinusoidal trajectories and radiate electromagnetic waves in the hard X-ray and gamma-ray frequency range. This opens the prospect of creating novel light sources that will find applications in technology, medicine, and basic sciences, including nuclear, solid-state and plasma physics, molecular biology, etc.

In the CUTE project, it is planned to combine the utilisation of state-of-the-art technologies: molecular beam epitaxy, laser ablation, low-pressure chemical vapour deposition, and low-energy plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition, with advanced theoretical methods aimed at a quantitative understanding of the underlying physical processes, which will allow the manufacture of bent crystals with a preassigned shape of channels. The quality of the manufactured crystals will be controlled using several advanced methods: X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and optical profilometry. Accelerator test of the crystalline undulators will be complemented with extensive Monte Carlo simulations of particle channelling and emission of the radiation.

The partners in the CUTE project are summarised in the following table: