Application of a crystal septum to replace a magnet in a charged particle beam and study of dechanneling and feeding-in effects in a single silicon crystal

First part of this thesis describes the first application of a crystal septum to replace a magnetic septum at the Fermilab Meson area M-Bottom secondary beam line. As a result the maximum momentum of the beam that could be transmitted to the experimental area was raised from the magnetic septum limit of 225 GeV/c to the full primary beam momentum of 400 GeV/c. Transmission properties of the crystal septum have been studied at energies of 60, 100, and 200 GeV/c. Beam properties at 200 GeV/c with the crystal septum operation has also been studied. The second part consists of a study of planar (110) and axial <112> feeding-in and dechanneling effects in a single silicon crystal. Three surface barrier semiconductor detectors along the crystal were used to measure the energy loss of the charged particles. The dechanneling lengths have been calculated for both planar and axial channeling and the incident angle dependence of feeding-in has been studied for planar channeling at above all energies