SLAC topics

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X-ray studies at SLAC facilities help scientists understand the fundamental workings of nature by probing matter in atomic detail.

atoms forming a tentative bond

News Feature

Teaching machine learning the basics of accelerator physics is particularly useful in situations where actual data don’t exist.

SSRL
News Feature

She toured the lab’s powerful X-ray laser, looked at the construction of the world’s largest digital camera, and discussed climate research, industries of the...

Secretary Granholm virtual visit
News Feature

Nickelate materials give scientists an exciting new window into how unconventional superconductors carry electric current with no loss at relatively high temperatures.

Illustration showing nickelate and cuprate superconductors as cartoon characters that are either close friends holding hands or neighbors talking over a fence.
News Brief

Petroglyphs are carved in a material called rock varnish, the origins of which have been debated for years. Now, scientists argue it’s the result...

Rock art featuring human and animal forms and handprints
News Feature

Measuring the process in unprecedented detail gives them clues to how to minimize the problem and protect battery performance.

Illustration of oxygen atoms leaving a lithium-ion battery as lithium flows in alongside a battery whose energy is being sapped by this process
Illustration

In this illustration, the pairs of red spheres are escaping oxygen atoms and purple spheres are metal ions. This new understanding could lead to...

Illustration of oxygen atoms leaving a lithium-ion battery as lithium flows in alongside a battery whose energy is being sapped by this process
News Feature

The Horizon Prizes celebrate the most exciting, contemporary chemical science at the cutting edge of research and innovation.

ultrafast X-ray scattering
News Feature

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
News Feature

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
News Feature

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.
News Feature

Known as “pair-density waves,” it may be key to understanding how superconductivity can exist at relatively high temperatures.

Illustration depicting how two types of waves within superconducting materials intertwine to form a third type known as charge-density waves
News Feature

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

polar vortices