It is shown experimentally that a low-power pinch vacuum discharge with laser ignition
can emit a beam of abnormally accelerated electrons with maximum energies per unit
charge, almost an order of magnitude higher than the voltage across the discharge gap. It is established that the intensity of the X-ray radiation generated by the action of the beam on the target significantly
decreases with increasing laser pulse energy. Maximum energy of X-ray quanta
is inversely proportional to the mass of the cathode material ablated by laser radiation when the discharge is ignited. Possible mechanisms of the electron beam generation process are discussed.
Time resolved x-ray emission from nanosecond vacuum discharge with virtual cathode