The high current plasma lens-a decade after

The authors briefly review the decade of work on the high current electrostatic plasma lens (PL) investigations. They also summarize here some new developments (experiments, theory, computer simulations) of PL operation in the low magnetic field regime. They show that there is a very narrow range of low magnetic field for which the optical properties of the lens improve dramatically. This opens up attractive possibilities for a new generation compact lens based on permanent magnets. The first experimental results obtained in 2001 at the Institute of Physics NASU (Kiev) and LBNL (Berkeley) on the operation of a permanent magnet plasma lens are presented and summarized.