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Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) RSS feed

The Linac Coherent Light Source at SLAC, the world’s first hard X-ray free-electron laser, takes X-ray snapshots of atoms and molecules at work, revealing fundamental processes in materials, technology and living things.

Visit LCLS website

Rooftop view of Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS)

Animation

The linac is equipped with two world-class helium cryoplants.

Cryoplant flow animation
Video

SLAC Recent History (1990s-today SLAC Linac Coherent Light Source) – The creation of a powerful X-ray laser. 

SLAC Recent History: The creation of a powerful X-ray laser
Video
News Feature

Researchers discover that a spot of molecular glue and a timely twist help a bacterial enzyme convert carbon dioxide into carbon compounds 20 times...

An illustration shows the pocket in an enzyme called ECR where the carbon fixing reaction takes place.
News Feature

The leaders of SLAC's Technology Innovation Directorate discuss how their group supports the lab's most innovative projects.

TID senior managers
News Feature

SLAC’s Matt Garrett and Susan Simpkins talk about tech transfer that brings innovations from the national lab to the people, including advances for medical...

Tech Transfer
News Feature

A laser compressing an aluminum crystal provides a clearer view of a material’s plastic deformation, potentially leading to the design of stronger nuclear fusion...

an abstract illustration of rippling waves made of shining dots
News Feature

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

meteor
News Feature

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...

Illustration shows two ball-and-stick molecules in pink and red separated by a blurred streak representing how the first structure is slightly deformed into the second.
Illustration
Illustration shows two ball-and-stick molecules in pink and red separated by a blurred streak representing how the first structure is slightly deformed into the second.
Video

Public lecture presented by Ben Ofori-Okai

Public lecture poster for Getting to the Core of Earth’s Magnetic Field
Video
News Feature

Less than a millionth of a billionth of a second long, attosecond X-ray pulses allow researchers to peer deep inside molecules and follow electrons...

Illustration of attosecond coherent electron motions.
News Feature

High-speed X-ray free-electron lasers have unlocked the crystal structures of small molecules relevant to chemistry and materials science, proving a new method that could...

Crystallography illustrations