News archive

Browse the full collection of SLAC press releases and news features and stay up to date on the latest scientific advancements at the laboratory.

Garcia-Esparza’s research offers unique insights into catalysts relevant to renewable energy generation and emerging materials for microelectronics.

This is a photograph of SSRL scientist Angel Garcia Esparza, who was awarded the 2023 Spicer Award

X-ray laser studies help researchers identify early steps in the freezing process to better understand how clouds make ice and their effect on climate.

supercooled water droplets

They used synthetic diamond crystals as mirrors to make X-ray pulses run laps inside a vacuum chamber, demonstrating a key process needed for future generations of performance-enhanced X-ray lasers.     

Two scientists in a control room full of computer monitors that allow them to adjust diamond mirrors in their CBXFEL experiment

Line intensity mapping measurements taken with a new instrument will allow astrophysicists to study galaxies too far away for traditional methods.

The South Pole Telescope

Leora Dresselhaus-Marais, Claudio Emma,  Bernhard Mistlberger and Johanna Nelson Weker will pursue cutting-edge research into decarbonizing steel production, theoretical physics, generating more intense particle beams, and improving X-ray microscopes.

This photo shows all four recipients from SLAC and Stanford of the DOE's 2023 Early Career Award

Bringing ultrafast physics to structural biology has revealed the coordinated dance of molecules in unprecedented clarity, which could aid in the design of new light-responsive materials.

molecular control
News Feature · VIA Symmetry Magazine

Applications of quantum mechanics at the beach

How does sunscreen work on the atomic level?

Illustration of a beach scene with a sunburned man

The facility is now one step away from releasing an unprecedented stream of ultra-bright X-rays.

This is a graphic representation of electron bunches travelling through SLAC's linear accelerator.

The long – but not too long – cavity would ping-pong X-ray pulses inside of a particle accelerator facility to help capture nature’s fastest movements.

This cartoon figure shows how the cavity-based X-ray free electron laser works in general. The electron beam (blue) travels through an undulator (brown), which causes the beam to release X-ray pulses. These pulses bounce around a set of four mirrors, helping them become coherent, before they continue down the accelerator to experimental halls.

The reanalysis considered new types of particle collisions and how dark matter particles interact with the Earth. 

clusters of galaxies collide showing separation of dark matter