Z-pinch optical guiding for GeV electron acceleration by laser wakefield

Propagating laser pulses over distances larger than vacuum diffraction length is a critical issue for laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA). A new method of optical guiding using fast Z-pinch have been proposed for the GeV LWFA experiment. The feasibility of the guiding of high intensity laser pulses using this method has been experimentally demonstrated over a distance of 2 cm corresponding to 12.5 times the Rayleigh length.