X-ray scattering and diffraction

En route to record-breaking X-rays, SLAC’s Cryogenic team built a helium-refrigeration plant that lowers the LCLS-II accelerator to superconducting temperatures.

Spiraling laser light reveals how topological insulators lose their ability to conduct electric current on their surfaces.

After almost two decades of synchrotron experiments, Caltech scientists have captured a clear picture of a cell’s nuclear pores, which are the doors and windows through which critical material in your body flows in and out of the cell’s nucleus...

By revealing the chemistry of plant secretions, or exudates, these studies build a basis for better understanding and conserving art and tools made with plant materials.

The facility, LCLS-II, will soon sharpen our view of how nature works on ultrasmall, ultrafast scales, impacting everything from quantum devices to clean energy.

Researchers mimicked these extreme impacts in the lab and discovered new details about how they transform minerals in Earth’s crust.

X-ray laser experiments show that intense light distorts the structure of a thermoelectric material in a unique way, opening a new avenue for controlling the properties of materials.

Scientists discover that triggering superconductivity with a flash of light involves the same fundamental physics that are at work in the more stable states needed for devices, opening a new path toward producing room-temperature superconductivity.

Spawned by the spins of electrons in magnetic materials, these tiny whirlpools behave like independent particles and could be the future of computing. Experiments with SLAC’s X-ray laser are revealing their secrets.