SLAC topics

LCLS soft X-ray materials science (SXR) RSS feed

The SXR beamline provided intense ultra short soft X-ray pulses to a diverse set of experimental configurations that used powerful tools such as X-ray emission, coherent imaging, resonant scattering, photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. The science performed at the SXR beamline covered wide-spread fields such as catalysis, magnetism, correlated materials, laboratory astrophysics and biological structure.

LCLS Resonant Soft X-ray Scattering Endstation.

News Feature

Researchers use X-ray laser at SLAC to track light-triggered chemical reactions in a molecule that serves as a simple model for the conversion of...

IMAGE - Artistic rendering of a molecule severed by laser light, with a separate molecule (bottom right) from a solvent rushing in to bond with the just-split molecule. (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
Press Release

Scientists have used an X-ray laser at SLAC to get the first glimpse of the transition state where two atoms begin to form a...

Illustration of a transition state in a chemical reaction.
Press Release

SLAC Research Reveals Rapid DNA Changes that Act as Molecular Sunscreen

Illustration showing a thymine molecule, DNA helix and the sun.
News Feature

A new study, based on an experiment at SLAC's X-ray laser, pins down a major factor behind the appearance of superconductivity—the ability to conduct...

Image - In this illustration, stripes of charge run in perpendicular "ripples" between the copper-oxide layers of a material (top). When a mid-infrared laser pulse strikes the material, it "melts" these ripples and induces superconductivity.
News Feature

An experiment at SLAC’s X-ray laser has revealed the first atomic-scale details of a new technique that could point the way to faster data...

Image - A laser-driven electric pulse excites a magnetic response in a multiferroic material that is measured by SLAC's X-ray laser pulse (blue).
Press Release

Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have clocked the fastest-possible electrical switching in magnetite, a naturally magnetic mineral...

Artists concept shows laser hitting atomic structure and breaking it
News Feature

Stephanie Mack, 20, read and reread the email in disbelief.

Photo - Shih-Wen Huang, left, and Stephanie Mack in Soft X-ray Instrument  control room
Press Release

The ultrafast, ultrabright X-ray pulses of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) have enabled unprecedented views of a catalyst in action, an important step...

Artist rendition: molecules react with the surface of a catalyst in real time
Press Release

Menlo Park, Calif. — Researchers using the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have...

Photo of the CAMP Chamber at LCLS
News Feature

Scientists have found a way to distort the atomic arrangement and change the magnetic properties of an important class of electronic materials with ultra-short...

This graphic depicts an ultrashort pulse of terahertz light distorting a manganite crystal lattice