This report overviews studies accomplished in the U70 proton synchrotron of IHEP-Protvino during the recent two decades. Major attention is paid to a routine application of bent crystals for beam extraction from the machine. It has been confirmed exp
erimentally that efficiency of beam extraction with a crystal deflector of around 85% is well feasible for a proton beam with intensity up to 1012 protons per cycle. Another trend is to use bent crystals for halo collimation in a high energy collider. New promising options emerge for, say, LHC and ILC based on the volume reflection effect, which has been discovered recently in machine study runs at U70 of IHEP (50 GeV) and SPS of CERN (400 GeV).
The article presents an overview of the results obtained at U-70 accelerator of IHEP to use bent crystals for beam control of high energy protons. Considerable attention is paid to practical application of crystals to create new modes of beam extract
ion from the accelerator to ensure experiments on high energy physics. It was shown that with the crystal deflectors the efficiency reached ~ 90% with intensity up to 10^12 protons per cycle of U-70. The results of experiments on the use of crystals to enhance the effectiveness of the absorption of the unused beam, as well as the use of crystals for collimation of beam halo are presented. Perspectives to use of bent crystals to extract low energy light ions from U-70 are also discussed.
