Laser steering of particle beams: refraction and reflection of particle beams

The co-propagation of an intense particle beam with an ionizing laser beam in a working gas/plasma is considered. When the axes of the laser and parti cle beam are not aligned, then asymmetric plasma lensing results in a net d ipole field acting on the particle beam. The particle beam can be steered o r bent (as well as focused) by steering the laser. An analogy is made betwe en the bending of the particle beam by collective effects at a plasma bound ary and the refraction or reflection of light at an interface. This mechani sm of particle steering may be of interest in applications for which perman ent magnets are inconvenient or a fast turn on is required. 3-D particle-in -cell simulations and relevance to a recent experiment are discussed. (C) 2 000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.