Design and performance of a high rate, high angular resolution beam telescope used for crystal channeling studies

A charged particle telescope has been constructed for data taking at high rates in a CERN 400 GeV/c proton beam line. It utilises ten planes of silicon microstrip sensors, arranged as five pairs each measuring two orthogonal coordinates, with an active area of 3.8 × 3.8 cm2. The objective was to provide excellent angular and spatial resolution for measuring the trajectories of incident and outgoing particles. The apparatus has a long baseline, of approximately 10 m in each arm, and achieves an angular resolution in the incoming arm of 2.8 μrad and a total angular resolution on the difference of the two arms of 5.2 μrad, with performance limited by multiple scattering in the sensor layers. The sensors are instrumented by a system based on the CMS Tracker electronic readout chain, including analogue signal readout for optimal spatial resolution. The system profits from modified CMS software and hardware to provide a data acquisition capable of peak trigger rates of at least 7 kHz. We describe the sensor readout, electronic hardware and software, together with the measured performance of the telescope during studies of crystal channeling for the UA9 collaboration. Measurements of a previously unobserved periodic movement of the beam are also presented and the significance of such an effect for precise studies such as for channeling is discussed.