Advanced accelerator R and D

Just as engineers once compressed some of the power of room-sized mainframes into desktop PCs, so too have the researchers shown how to pack some of the punch delivered by today’s ginormous particle accelerators onto a tiny silicon chip.

Called XLEAP, the new method will provide sharp views of electrons in chemical processes that take place in billionths of a billionth of a second and drive crucial aspects of life.

The next revolutionary X-ray laser in a class of its own, LCLS-II, is under construction at SLAC, with support from four other DOE national laboratories.

At SLAC’s FACET facility, researchers have produced an intense electron beam by 'sneaking’ electrons into plasma, demonstrating a method that could be used in future compact discovery machines that explore the subatomic world.

The SLAC scientists will each receive $2.5 million for their research on fusion energy and advanced radiofrequency technology.

Combined with the lab’s LCLS X-ray laser, it’ll provide unprecedented atomic views of some of nature’s speediest processes.

Particle accelerators are some of the most complicated machines in science.

Its electron beams will drive the generation of up to a million ultrabright X-ray flashes per second.

SLAC’s ‘electron camera’ films rapidly melting tungsten and reveals atomic-level material behavior that could impact the design of future reactors.

The approach could advance our understanding of fundamental forces under extreme conditions with applications from astrophysics to fusion research.

First direct look at how atoms move when a ring-shaped molecule breaks apart could boost our understanding of fundamental processes of life.

In the decade since LCLS produced its first light, it has pushed boundaries in countless areas of discovery.