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Brief Communications
Nature 411, 43 (3 May 2001) | doi:10.1038/35075144
Boundary effects: Refraction of a particle beam
Patric Muggli1, Seung Lee1, Thomas Katsouleas1, Ralph Assmann2, Franz-Joseph Decker2, Mark J. Hogan2, Richard Iverson2, Pantaleo Raimondi2, Robert H. Siemann2, Dieter Walz2, Brent Blue3, Christopher E. Clayton3, Evan Dodd3, Ricardo A. Fonseca3, Roy Hemker3, Chandrashekhar Joshi3, Kenneth A. Marsh3, Warren B. Mori3 & Shoquin Wang3
Abstract
The refraction of light at an interface is familiar as a rainbow or the 'bending' of a pencil in a glass of water. Here we show that particles can also be refracted and even totally internally reflected, as evidenced by an electron beam of 28.5 
109 electron volts being deflected by more than a milli-radian upon exiting a passive boundary between a plasma and a gas — the electron beam is bent away from the normal to the interface, just like light leaving a medium of higher refractive index. This phenomenon could lead to the replacement of magnetic kickers by fast optical kickers in particle accelerators, for example, or to compact magnet-less storage rings in which beams are guided by plasma fibre optics.
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