Laser-driven electron breakout from ultra-thin targets

The acceleration of electrons from ultra-thin foils using high-intensity lasers has recently gained high interest due to the outstanding characteristics of the generated electron beam observed in particle-in-cell simulations. Here, the generation of a relativistic electron bunch of ultra-high density was demonstrated which may be well-suited for the generation of ultra-short coherent x-ray radiation via Thomson back-scattering 2 .