Abstract
The relativistic flying mirror concept uses nonlinear plasma waves formed by an ultra-short intense laser pulse in tenuous plasma to reflect incoming laser light. Because the nonlinear plasma wave is moving approximately at the speed of light, the reflected light is downshifted in wavelength and shortened in pulse length. This concept has been originally invented to intensify focused laser intensity towards extremely high electric field, in which a vacuum starts to break. This scheme is also useful to generate ultra-short, soft-X-ray to XUV light.
