collage of LCLS-II milestones
LCLS-II news collection

Building the world’s most powerful X-ray laser

An upgrade to SLAC’s renowned Linac Coherent Light Source will allow it to deliver X-ray laser beams that are 10,000 times brighter with pulses that arrive up to a million times per second.

Hundreds of scientists use LCLS each year to catch a glimpse of nature’s fundamental processes. The unique X-ray microscope uses some of the brightest, fastest X-ray pulses ever made to provide unprecedented details of the atomic world.

LCLS-II will allow researchers to make observations over a wider energy range, capture detailed snapshots of rapid processes, probe delicate samples and gather more data in less time. Powered by a superconducting accelerator, LCLS-II will further sharpen our view of how nature works at the atomic scale and help advance transformative technologies of the future, including novel electronics, life-saving drugs and innovative energy solutions.

 

Video
LCLS-II: The next leap for X-ray science

Latest LCLS-II news

News feature

The Secretary celebrated LCLS-II first light with 600 SLAC staff and collaborators Oct. 26.

Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm and SLAC staff celebrate LCLS-II first light

This research advances our understanding of Earth's deep interior and exoplanets, opening new research avenues in Earth and planetary sciences.

mec_super_earth

The high-energy upgrade will keep the U.S. at the forefront of X-ray science and technology, allowing researchers to advance fields such as sustainability, human health and quantum information.

LCLS-II-HE

Digital design engineer Abhilasha Dave’s passion for connecting machine learning and hardware is helping SLAC solve big data challenges.

Photo of Abhilasha Dave in her office

The results, which show how the protein adds nucleotides to the growing RNA chain, could lead to more effective medications.

Calero_group

Scientists demonstrated a materials characterization technique can be successful at a new type of facility, and they used it at LCLS to discover a hidden materials phase.

A small bright ball falls on a purple grid, creating a wave.

This research advances our understanding of Earth's deep interior and exoplanets, opening new research avenues in Earth and planetary sciences.

mec_super_earth

The high-energy upgrade will keep the U.S. at the forefront of X-ray science and technology, allowing researchers to advance fields such as sustainability, human health and quantum information.

LCLS-II-HE

Digital design engineer Abhilasha Dave’s passion for connecting machine learning and hardware is helping SLAC solve big data challenges.

Photo of Abhilasha Dave in her office

The results, which show how the protein adds nucleotides to the growing RNA chain, could lead to more effective medications.

Calero_group

Scientists demonstrated a materials characterization technique can be successful at a new type of facility, and they used it at LCLS to discover a hidden materials phase.

A small bright ball falls on a purple grid, creating a wave.

The Ultrafast X-ray Summer School, run by the Stanford PULSE Institute and hosted at SLAC, opens the door for students and postdocs to imagine how they could use X-ray free electron lasers in their future careers.

A group photo of people in red tee shirts.

Following the NIF ignition demonstrations, the prospect of developing a fusion energy source using lasers looks brighter than ever. 

Illustration featuring three SLAC scientists Alan Fry, Arianna Gleason, and Siegfried Glenzer.

Teams at SLAC installed new experimental hutches with cutting-edge instruments that will harness the upgraded facility’s new capabilities and expand the breadth of research done at the facility.

SLAC's linac at sunrise, looking east.

The award recognizes Driver’s contribution toward attosecond X-ray capabilities.

A portrait of Taran Driver.

With up to a million X-ray flashes per second, 8,000 times more than its predecessor, it transforms the ability of scientists to explore atomic-scale, ultrafast phenomena that are key to a broad range of applications, from quantum materials to clean...

LCLS-II first light
Media mentions

LCLS-II in the news

Media contact

SLAC Media Relations
media@slac.stanford.edu

LCLS-II explained

The upgrade to the Linac Coherent Light Source, LCLS-II, will be a transformative tool for energy science, qualitatively changing the way that X-ray imaging, scattering and spectroscopy can be used to study how natural and artificial systems function. It will produce X-ray pulses that are 10,000 times brighter, on average, than those of LCLS and that arrive up to a million times per second. Learn what an XFEL does and about SLAC’s journey to upgrading its Linac Coherent Light Source.

X-ray free-electron lasers are like X-ray microscopes, allowing scientists to spot the intricate movements of atoms and molecules and capture their motion in snapshots that can be strung together into “molecular movies” of materials, chemistry and biology in action.

Molecular movie filmstrip.

SLAC’s renowned Linac Coherent Light Source is getting a major upgrade that will significantly boost its power and capacity. LCLS-II will further sharpen our view of how nature works at the atomic scale and help advance transformative technologies of the future, including novel electronics, life-saving drugs and innovative energy solutions.

Aerial view of linac and cryoplant at SLAC

At the heart of LCLS-II is a superconducting accelerator made up of 37 cryomodules with strings of super-cold niobium cavities. Linked together and chilled to nearly absolute zero, they will accelerate electrons to almost the speed of light and power an upgrade to the nation’s only X-ray free-electron laser facility.

A worker unveiling a cryomodule on a truck.

LCLS was designed to generate X-ray pulses a billion times brighter than anything that had come before. It was the first machine to produce ultrafast high energy X-ray laser pulses. Since it turned on in April 2009, SLAC has been the birthplace of a host of scientific firsts. LCLS-II will bump X-ray science to new heights.

Undulator Hall
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Building a next-gen X-ray laser

Building a Next-Gen X-ray Laser
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Collaboration

Partnerships

LCLS-II was developed and built in collaboration with four other DOE national laboratories: ArgonneBerkeley LabFermilabJefferson Lab, and Cornell University.

  • Argonne National Laboratory
  • Berkeley Lab
  • Fermilab
  • Jefferson Lab
  • Cornell University

International partners

  • DESY
  • European XFEL
  • CEA Saclay
  • CERN

 

 

For questions or comments, contact the SLAC Office of Communications at communications@slac.stanford.edu.


About SLAC

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory explores how the universe works at the biggest, smallest and fastest scales and invents powerful tools used by researchers around the globe. As world leaders in ultrafast science and bold explorers of the physics of the universe, we forge new ground in understanding our origins and building a healthier and more sustainable future. Our discovery and innovation help develop new materials and chemical processes and open unprecedented views of the cosmos and life’s most delicate machinery. Building on more than 60 years of visionary research, we help shape the future by advancing areas such as quantum technology, scientific computing and the development of next-generation accelerators.

SLAC is operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.