Building the world’s most powerful X-ray laser

Water is all around us, yet its surface layer is surprisingly hard to study. Experiments at SLAC’s X-ray laser are bringing it into focus.

Experiments running at these higher pulse rates will allow scientists to capture ultrafast processes with greater precision, collect data more efficiently and explore phenomena that were previously out of reach.

The SLAC team is developing digital twins – powered by AI and high-performance computing – to help quickly shape high-quality particle beams for the lab’s X-ray and ultrafast facilities.

After a major upgrade, SLAC's X-ray free-electron laser is 10,000 times brighter and thousands of times faster. Now, researchers are using LCLS to observe electrons in real time as they move across molecules.

Researchers used LCLS to capture the ultrafast motion of electrons inside molecules – at scales never before possible. 

They used SLAC’s ultrafast X-ray laser to follow the impact of a single electron moving within a molecule during an entire chemical reaction.

With a suite of reimagined instruments, researchers take up scientific inquiries that were out of reach just one year ago. 

Researchers used the upgraded LCLS to better understand what makes Xanthone – a powerful photocatalyst used in cancer therapies –  so efficient.  

Now 10,000 times brighter and thousands of times faster, LCLS sheds light on the formation of free radicals in nature. 

Shweta Saraf and her team work to ensure the LCLS beamline runs without interruption.