Channelling and channelling radiation

The study of channelling phenomena has developed rapidly since the early 1960s and today channelling has found many applications. The radiation emitted by channelled megaelectronvolt and gigaelectronvolt electrons and positrons has been investigated extensively and the possibility of, for example, constructing intense tunable X- and γ-ray sources is being explored. Multi-gigaelectronvolt radiation and pair-creation processes in single crystals show similarities with strong-field effects and are of particular interest because of high production rates that persist far beyond the channelling regime. (author)