- van Tilborg, J;
- Steinke, S;
- Geddes, CGR;
- Matlis, NH;
- Shaw, BH;
- Gonsalves, AJ;
- Huijts, JV;
- Nakamura, K;
- Daniels, J;
- Schroeder, CB;
- Benedetti, C;
- Esarey, E;
- Bulanov, SS;
- Bobrova, NA;
- Sasorov, PV;
- Leemans, WP
Compact, tunable, radially symmetric focusing of electrons is critical to laser-plasma accelerator (LPA) applications. Experiments are presented demonstrating the use of a discharge-capillary active plasma lens to focus 100-MeV-level LPA beams. The lens can provide tunable field gradients in excess of 3000 T/m, enabling cm-scale focal lengths for GeV-level beam energies and allowing LPA-based electron beams and light sources to maintain their compact footprint. For a range of lens strengths, excellent agreement with simulation was obtained.