Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS)

SLAC and Stanford partner with Argonne National Laboratory and others toward a quantum-interconnected world.

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.

21-26 September 2025 at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

His visit highlighted the breadth of our world-class research and the people and collaborations that make it possible. A key theme of the day: how SLAC and the National Labs are advancing AI to accelerate discovery.

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. 

Results obtained with SLAC’s X-ray laser show how tiny magnetic coils can align over a surprisingly broad timescale, inspiring new ideas for microelectronics. 

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

Researchers taking the first-ever direct measurement of atom temperature in extremely hot materials inadvertently disproved a decades-old theory and upended our understanding of superheating. 

Ultrafast electrons at SLAC’s LCLS facility resolved the structural changes in a light-activated molecule to determine which simulations work best.