For decades, materials scientists have focused on materials that are relatively balanced and unchanging – but not Yijing Huang, a postdoctoral scholar at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. With the aid of SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source...

Illustration of how a single crystal sample of silicon deforms during shock compression on nanosecond timescales.

Silicon, an element abundant in Earth’s crust, is currently the most widely used semiconductor material and is important in fields like engineering, geophysics and plasma physics. But despite decades of studies, how the material transforms when hit with powerful shockwaves...

Scientists use a series of magnets to transform an electron bunch into a narrow current spike which then produces a very intense attosecond X-ray flash. 

SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) Near Experimental Hall building at sunrise with Stanford University Hoover Tower in the background.

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 in the effort to develop cleaner and more efficient energy sources.

Dominique White takes a look at the last cryomodule for LCLS-II delivered from Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

Kayla Ninh at LCLS’s ChemRIX Hutch 2.2 in Near Experimental Hall. 

SLAC’s linac before sunset looking west.