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Ultrafast science RSS feed

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)

News Feature

Switches like this one, discovered with SLAC’s ultrafast ‘electron camera’, could offer a new, simple path to storing data in next-generation devices.

Single Pulse Material Switch
News Feature

In a first, researchers measure extremely small and fast changes that occur in plasma when it’s zapped with a laser. Their technique will have...

LCLS Plasma Expansion
News Feature

The annual conference for scientists who conduct research at SLAC’s light sources engaged about 470 researchers in talks, workshops and discussions.

2018 Users Conference
News Feature

The early-career award honors a promising leader in X-ray free-electron laser research.

SLAC's Tais Gorkhover
News Feature

A team of electrical designers develops specialized microchips for a broad range of scientific applications, including X-ray science and particle physics.

This illustration shows the layout of an application-specific integrated circuit, or ASIC, at an imaginary art exhibition.
News Feature

Tony Heinz and Z-X Shen will receive funding for research focused on catalysis and novel states of matter.

Video

This video explains how researchers at SLAC are using a method known as ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) to develop an atomic-level understanding of how...

Video
Press Release

To break, or not to break: An unprecedented atomic movie captures the moment when molecules decide how to respond to light.

UED Bond Breaking
Animation
Animation of a trifluoroiodomethane molecule (carbon shown in black, fluoride in green, iodine in pink) responding to laser light. The...
UED Bond Breaking
Press Release

SLAC’s high-speed ‘electron camera’ shows for the first time the coexistence of solid and liquid in laser-heated gold, providing new clues for designing materials...

UED Gold Melting
Animation
This movie shows the transition of a gold sample from a solid (dotted pattern) to a liquid (ring pattern) after...
UED Gold Melting
Animation

This animation shows the results of a recent study at SLAC, in which researchers used a powerful beam of electrons to watch gold melt...

UED Gold Melting