Electron Identification with the ATLAS Detector at the Large Hadron Collider

For the ATLAS experiment at LHC identification of leptons will be of extreme importance. Here is presented the general physics motivation for electron identification together with the approach used in ATLAS. Special emphasis is put on the use of a transition radiation detector to improve the rejection of jets provided by the calorimeters and tracking alone. A general overview is given of how electron identification will be used in the physics analysis. The analysis of data from a prototype of the transition radiation tracker shows a detector which can work at a high luminosity hadron collider.