SLAC topics

Stanford PULSE Institute RSS feed

Researchers at the Stanford PULSE Institute watch ultrafast particle motions and chemical reactions to get a deeper understanding of matter in all its forms. Soon we’ll be able to watch even speedier electron movements that underlie all of chemistry, technology and life.

Visit PULSE website

XLEAP illustration

News Brief

Proving the technique works puts scientists one step closer to unraveling the mysteries of hydrogen transfers.

Red and blue laser beams strike a sample.
News Feature

A groundbreaking study shows defects spreading through diamond faster than the speed of sound 

Shocking a diamond with a high-power laser produced defects that propagated faster than the speed of sound.
News Feature

X-ray laser studies help researchers identify early steps in the freezing process to better understand how clouds make ice and their effect on climate.

supercooled water droplets
News Feature

The results should further our understanding of similar reactions with vital roles in chemistry, such as the production of vitamin D in our bodies.

UED transition state
Press Release

After decades of effort, scientists have finally seen the process by which nature creates the oxygen we breathe using SLAC’s X-ray laser.

Photosystem II
Animation

In photosystem II, the water-splitting center cycles through four stable states

Photosystem II baseball
News Feature

The award celebrates Huang’s achievements studying atom-scale physics with fast X-ray pulses.

Yijing Huang at Stanford University
Illustration
When light drives electron transfer in a molecular complex, the surrounding solvent molecules also rapidly move.
When light drives electron transfer in a molecular complex, the surrounding solvent molecules also rapidly move.
Photograph
PULSE graduate student Jian Chen in a laser lab at SLAC.   Details
PULSE graduate student Jian Chen in a laser lab at SLAC.
Illustration

Scientists use a series of magnets to transform an electron bunch into a narrow current spike which then produces a very intense attosecond X-ray...

XLEAP illustration
News Feature

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

Against a black background, thin, glowing red wires at top impinge on the hexagonal surface of a translucent mass. Small white dots travel along the edges of the surface in two directions. Within the mass, two orange cones meet at their tips.
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.