Ultrafast science

Understanding nature’s process could inform the next generation of artificial photosynthetic systems that produce clean and renewable energy from sunlight and water.

Learning how liquid silicates behave at these extreme temperatures and pressures has been a longstanding challenge in the geosciences.

Light-driven reactions are at the heart of human vision, photosynthesis and solar power generation. Seeing the very first step opens the door to observing chemical bonds forming and breaking.

New research shows that when a bunch of electrons zooms through the middle of a ring-shaped laser beam, the bunch can wind up with higher quality and generate a brighter X-ray beam.

Researchers investigate how much damage spreads through molecules struck by a pulse from LCLS.

This new technology could enable future insights into chemical and biological processes that occur in solution, such as vision, catalysis and photosynthesis.

An LCLS imaging technique reveals how a mosquito-borne bacterium deploys a toxin to kill mosquito larvae. Scientists hope to harness it to fight disease.

Hitting molecules with two photons of light at once set off unexpected processes that were captured in detail with SLAC’s X-ray laser. Scientists say this new approach should work for bigger and more complicated molecules, too, allowing new insights into...

Researchers have squeezed a high-energy electron beam into tight bundles using terahertz radiation, a promising advance in watching the ultrafast world of atoms unfold.

Siqi Li develops connections with people and concepts while working on new technologies for accelerators.

What they learned could lead to a better understanding of how ionizing radiation can damage material systems, including cells.