Scattering in crystals with effective radiation length in the micron range

In computer simulations we find that particles can scatter in bent crystal lattices with effective radiation length down to a few micron or 300-700 times shorter than in the corresponding amorphous materials. We derive a theoretical estimate independent of energy for the effective radiation length that is in agreement with our simulations for C, Si, Ge, and W crystal lattices. We show that in the ongoing collimation experiment at the Tevatron a crystal-based smart scattering material could outperform a channeling crystal in efficiency of collimation reducing the local background rate by a factor of 40.