Electrostatic beams from tailored plasmas in a Penning–Malmberg trap

In recent work, a technique was developed to extract high quality beams from single-component plasmas confined in a Penning–Malmberg trap in a 4.8 T magnetic field. In this paper, a procedure is developed to extract these beams from the confining magnetic field and then focus them to create especially tailored electrostatic beams. Electron beams are extracted from the field in two stages: they are first transported to a region of reduced field 1 mT , and then taken to zero field with a nonadiabatic, fast extraction. Once in the field-free region, the beams are focused using an Einzel lens. Experimental results and numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the extraction and focusing process. Theoretical expressions are developed to describe the modifications to the relevant beam energy and spatial distributions. Where possible, analytic expressions are presented for the case relevant here of beams with Gaussian radial profiles. Beam emittance considerations are discussed as well as prospects for further development of these techniques. Application of these techniques to provide high-quality positron beams is also discussed. © 2010 American Institute of Physics. doi:10.1063/1.3529370