title: Demonstration of relativistic electron beam focusing by a laser-plasma lens.
abstract: Laser-plasma technology promises a drastic reduction of the size of high-energy electron accelerators. It could make free-electron lasers available to a broad scientific community and push further the limits of electron accelerators for high-energy physics. Furthermore, the unique femtosecond nature of the source makes it a promising tool for the study of ultrafast phenomena. However, applications are hindered by the lack of suitable lens to transport this kind of high-current electron beams mainly due to their divergence. Here we show that this issue can be solved by using a laser-plasma lens in which the field gradients are five order of magnitude larger than in conventional optics. We demonstrate a reduction of the divergence by nearly a factor of three, which should allow for an efficient coupling of the beam with a conventional beam transport line.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, ENSTA-CNRS UMR7639-École Polytechnique, 828 Boulevard des MarŽchaux, 91762 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Thaury
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, ENSTA-CNRS UMR7639-École Polytechnique, 828 Boulevard des MarŽchaux, 91762 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Guillaume
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, ENSTA-CNRS UMR7639-École Polytechnique, 828 Boulevard des MarŽchaux, 91762 Palaiseau, France.|Centro de Laseres Pulsados, Parque Cientfico, 37185 Villamayor, Salamanca, Spain.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Döpp
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, ENSTA-CNRS UMR7639-École Polytechnique, 828 Boulevard des MarŽchaux, 91762 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lehe
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, ENSTA-CNRS UMR7639-École Polytechnique, 828 Boulevard des MarŽchaux, 91762 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lifschitz
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, ENSTA-CNRS UMR7639-École Polytechnique, 828 Boulevard des MarŽchaux, 91762 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ta Phuoc
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, ENSTA-CNRS UMR7639-École Polytechnique, 828 Boulevard des MarŽchaux, 91762 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gautier
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, ENSTA-CNRS UMR7639-École Polytechnique, 828 Boulevard des MarŽchaux, 91762 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: J-P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Goddet
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, ENSTA-CNRS UMR7639-École Polytechnique, 828 Boulevard des MarŽchaux, 91762 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tafzi
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, ENSTA-CNRS UMR7639-École Polytechnique, 828 Boulevard des MarŽchaux, 91762 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Flacco
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, ENSTA-CNRS UMR7639-École Polytechnique, 828 Boulevard des MarŽchaux, 91762 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tissandier
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, ENSTA-CNRS UMR7639-École Polytechnique, 828 Boulevard des MarŽchaux, 91762 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sebban
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, ENSTA-CNRS UMR7639-École Polytechnique, 828 Boulevard des MarŽchaux, 91762 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rousse
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, ENSTA-CNRS UMR7639-École Polytechnique, 828 Boulevard des MarŽchaux, 91762 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Malka