Guiding and confinement of a laser produced plasma by a curved magnetic field

An axial magnetic field with a maximum strength of 2.2 kG was used to confine and guide a laser produced carbon plasma around a 30 deg bend. The plasma was produced by a 25 ns KrF laser pulse at a peak intensity of 1×109 W cm−2. An array of Faraday cups positioned at the exit of the guide field was used to determine that approximately 20% of the original plasma was confined by the magnetic field and guided along a 15 cm trajectory to a 5 cm2 area.