Topic: Ultrafast science | SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

news collection

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.

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.

News Feature

Chemical reactions often involve intermediate steps that are too fast and complex for us to see – even using our most advanced scientific instruments...

This is a graphic representation of an intermediate chemical reaction. The image shows the chemical reaction, a laser, X-rays and a detector system.

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.

Animation

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

News Feature

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

Illustration

When light drives electron transfer in a molecular complex, the surrounding solvent molecules also rapidly move.

Illustration

Perovskites’ unusual response to light could explain the high efficiency of these next-generation solar cell materials.

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...

Illustration

Researchers made the first microscopic movies of liquids getting vaporized by SLAC’s X-ray free-electron laser LCLS.

Press Release

Studying a material that even more closely resembles the composition of ice giants, researchers found that oxygen boosts the formation of diamond rain.

News Feature

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.

Images of frost and a thermometer superimposed over an aerial view of an accelerator building.

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.

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

Chemical reactions often involve intermediate steps that are too fast and complex for us to see – even using our most advanced scientific instruments. Combining two X-ray spectroscopy techniques has now been shown to change that.

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

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

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

When light drives electron transfer in a molecular complex, the surrounding solvent molecules also rapidly move.

Perovskites’ unusual response to light could explain the high efficiency of these next-generation solar cell materials.

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 flash.

Researchers made the first microscopic movies of liquids getting vaporized by SLAC’s X-ray free-electron laser LCLS.

Studying a material that even more closely resembles the composition of ice giants, researchers found that oxygen boosts the formation of diamond rain.

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.

Who we are

SLAC science explained

Vera C. Rubin Observatory LSST

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Expecting the Unexpected with AI at Particle Colliders

Ultrafast science

LCLS-II

In a first, researchers capture fleeting “transition state” in ring-shaped molecules excited by light

Scientists capture elusive chemical reaction using enhanced X-ray method

Researchers capture elusive missing step in the final act of photosynthesis

Photosystem II baseball

Yijing Huang wins 2022 LCLS Young Investigator Award for work on controlling unique structures of semiconductors

Electron transfer in a molecular complex

Perovskites

XLEAP illustration

Microscopic movies of liquids

‘Diamond rain’ on giant icy planets could be more common than previously thought

Helium’s chilling journey to cool a particle accelerator

LCLS-II

In a first, researchers capture fleeting “transition state” in ring-shaped molecules excited by light

Scientists capture elusive chemical reaction using enhanced X-ray method

Researchers capture elusive missing step in the final act of photosynthesis

Photosystem II baseball

Yijing Huang wins 2022 LCLS Young Investigator Award for work on controlling unique structures of semiconductors

Electron transfer in a molecular complex

Perovskites

XLEAP illustration

Microscopic movies of liquids

‘Diamond rain’ on giant icy planets could be more common than previously thought

Helium’s chilling journey to cool a particle accelerator