Refraction of a particle beam: Boundary effects

The refraction of light at an interface is familiar as a rainbow or the 'bending' of a pencil in a glass of water. Here we show that particles can also be refracted and even totally internally reflected, as evidenced by an electron beam of 28.5 × 10 9 electron volts being deflected by more...

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Published in:Nature (London) 2001-05, Vol.411 (6833), p.43-43
Main Authors: Muggli, Patric, Lee, Seung, Katsouleas, Thomas, Assmann, Ralph, Decker, Franz-Joseph, Hogan, Mark J., Iverson, Richard, Raimondi, Pantaleo, Siemann, Robert H., Walz, Dieter, Blue, Brent, Clayton, Christopher E., Dodd, Evan, Fonseca, Ricardo A., Hemker, Roy, Joshi, Chandrashekhar, Marsh, Kenneth A., Mori, Warren B., Wang, Shoquin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
brief-communication
Humanities and Social Sciences
multidisciplinary
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
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Summary:The refraction of light at an interface is familiar as a rainbow or the 'bending' of a pencil in a glass of water. Here we show that particles can also be refracted and even totally internally reflected, as evidenced by an electron beam of 28.5 × 10 9 electron volts being deflected by more than a milli-radian upon exiting a passive boundary between a plasma and a gas — the electron beam is bent away from the normal to the interface, just like light leaving a medium of higher refractive index. This phenomenon could lead to the replacement of magnetic kickers by fast optical kickers in particle accelerators, for example, or to compact magnet-less storage rings in which beams are guided by plasma fibre optics.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/35075144