A high angular resolution silicon microstrip telescope for crystal channeling studies

A charged particle telescope has been deployed for data taking at high rates in a CERN beam line using protons and other particles. The apparatus has a baseline of approximately 10 m in each arm, and achieves an angular resolution of 5.4 μrad using 400 GeV/c protons. The electronic readout and data acquisition system is based on that developed for the CMS Tracker, and provides almost deadtime-free operation at trigger rates of up to about 10 kHz. The telescope was developed to characterize crystals used in channeling experiments with a primary objective to validate them for use in a future LHC beam collimation system. The telescope has also been used for other studies of fundamental phenomena associated with the channeling process. The telescope is described, and its measured performance, referring to results from channeling studies, including recent measurements in heavy ion beams.