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SLAC is the world’s leading center for developing “ultrafast” X-ray, laser and electron beams that allow us to see atoms and molecules moving in just millionths of a billionth of a second. We can even create stop-action movies of these tiny events.

DOE explains...Ultrafast science

This illustration shows how the first experiment at SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source X-ray laser stripped away electrons from neon atoms. (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

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From the invisible world of elementary particles to the mysteries of the cosmos, recipients of this prestigious award for early career scientists explore nature...

Panofsky fellows
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Edward Hohenstein, Emma McBride and Caterina Vernieri study what happens to molecules hit by light, recreate extreme states of matter like those inside stars...

Early Career Awardees 2021
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With a new suite of tools, scientists discovered exactly how tiny plate-like catalyst particles carry out a key step in that conversion – the...

Illustration of nanoscale catalyst particles.
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Exploring and manipulating the behavior of polar vortices in materials may lead to new technology for faster data transfer and storage.

polar vortices
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The results have important implications for today’s TV and display screens and for future technologies where light takes the place of electrons and fluids.

Illustration of three quantum dot nanocrystals showing atomic-level changes when they are hit with laser light
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This new understanding could aid the development of more efficient clean energy sources.

electron transfer
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A better understanding of the failure process will help researchers design new materials that can better withstand intense events such as high-velocity impacts.

material failure
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Scientists get dramatically better resolution at X-ray free-electron lasers with a new technique.

timingjitter
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Just as pressing a guitar string produces a higher pitch, sending laser light through a material can shift it to higher energies and higher...

High harmonic generation in a topological insulator.
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These fleeting disruptions, seen for the first time in lead hybrid perovskites, may help explain why these materials are exceptionally good at turning sunlight...

An illustration shows polarons as bubbles of distortion in a perovskite lattice
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The results, which show that ultrafast atomic motions are the first step in forming a magnetic state, could lead to faster and more efficient...

Charge transfer
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The results of a new scientific study reveal how photosynthetic reaction centers adapt to make light-driven reactions more efficient.

photosynthesis header