Intense and monochromatic X-rays by channeling radiation

The present paper reports on the recent progress that has been made with respect to the investigation of channeling radiation produced by MeV electrons. The advances are based on new accelerator techniques which provide high quality intense electron beams of low emittance. With these prerequisites it has become possible to study the more hidden effects occurring during the electron-crystal interaction and to investigate the possibility that channeling radiation could be a candidate for a monoenergetic intense photon source in the keV region. From the study of the intensity and linewidth of transitions within the channeling potential, the quantities 1/e-occupation length, equi-population length and X-ray coherence length can be deduced, and the various contributions which govern the scattering process can be extracted and evaluated. First observations of the polarization of channeling radiation between discrete states are also presented. (orig.)