Electron beam tracking in a preformed density channel

High-current charged particle beams can be guided by reduced density channels. Such guiding occurs when the distribution of plasma currents in the density channel causes a net attractive force to be exerted on the beam. In particular, a relativistic electron beam (REB) injected parallel to a spatially offset, reduced density channel is pulled toward the channel. The force exerted on the beam is predicted to increase as the beam current increases and as the offset between the beam and the channel increases out to offsets equal to the channel radius. An experiment with a 1 MV, ≊10 kA beam was performed that demonstrates this effect.