LCLS Atomic, Molecular & Optical Science (AMO)

Laser-driven break up of "buckyballs" is recorded in real-time by X-ray imaging at LCLS. 

The high-energy upgrade will keep the U.S. at the forefront of X-ray science and technology, allowing researchers to advance fields such as sustainability, human health and quantum information.

Scientists report the first look at electrons moving in real-time in liquid water; findings open up a whole new field of experimental physics

With up to a million X-ray flashes per second, 8,000 times more than its predecessor, it transforms the ability of scientists to explore atomic-scale, ultrafast phenomena that are key to a broad range of applications, from quantum materials to clean...

Less than a millionth of a billionth of a second long, attosecond X-ray pulses allow researchers to peer deep inside molecules and follow electrons as they zip around and ultimately initiate chemical reactions.

Researchers demonstrate a new ability to drive and track electronic motion, which is crucial to understanding the role of electrons in chemical processes and how quantum coherence evolves on the shortest timescales.

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

With SLAC’s X-ray laser, scientists captured a virus changing shape and rearranging its genome to invade a cell.

A major international effort at SLAC is focused on improving our views of intact viruses, living bacteria and other tiny samples using the brightest X-ray light on Earth.

For the first time, researchers have produced a 3-D image revealing some of the inner structure of an intact, infectious virus.

Technique Could Allow Study of Viral Infections, Cell Division and Photosynthesis in New Detail

In this lecture, SLAC’s Ryan Coffee explains how researchers are beginning to use pattern recognition and machine learning to study chemical reactions at the level of atoms and molecules with the LCLS X-ray laser.