A plasma lens and accelerator eased upon magnetically driven charge separation

An electrostatic lens is described in which a pulsed magnetic field is used to create a radial charge separation in a cylindrical plasma. The radial field can be made strongly focusing for a positively or negatively charged beam passing along the axis. On a longer time scale, the ions initially in the plasma are accelerated to the axis with energies of up to 0.5 MeV. The device may be useful as a generator of neutrons as well as a lens for charged particle beams. Pulsed radial electric fields exceeding 100 MV/m should be possible from modest magnetic compression fields