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Ultrafast science RSS feed

SLAC is the world’s leading center for developing “ultrafast” X-ray, laser and electron beams that allow us to see atoms and molecules moving in just millionths of a billionth of a second. We can even create stop-action movies of these tiny events.

DOE explains...Ultrafast science

This illustration shows how the first experiment at SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source X-ray laser stripped away electrons from neon atoms. (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

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

XLEAP illustration
Illustration

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

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.

Diamond rain formation
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.
Illustration
A cross section of the LCLS-II accelerator showing where liquid and gaseous helium flow in and out of the system.
Cross section showing pipes and liquid and gas helium
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

An extension of the Stanford Research Computing Facility will host several data centers to handle the unprecedented data streams that will be produced by...

SRCF-II
SLAC Science Explained

Molecular movie-making is both an art and a science; the results let us watch how nature works on the smallest scales.

Molecular movie filmstrip.
Press Release

The facility, LCLS-II, will soon sharpen our view of how nature works on ultrasmall, ultrafast scales, impacting everything from quantum devices to clean energy.

LCLS-II cooldown
Animation
Now that the cavities have been cooled, the next step is to pump them with more than a megawatt of...
Cryomodule cavity animation
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.