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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)

News Feature

Revealing both sides of the story in a single experiment has been a grand scientific challenge.

nuclear and electronic
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Understanding nature’s process could inform the next generation of artificial photosynthetic systems that produce clean and renewable energy from sunlight and water.

How electrons flow in the oxygen-evolving complex of Photosystem II.
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Learning how liquid silicates behave at these extreme temperatures and pressures has been a longstanding challenge in the geosciences.

atomic arrangements of liquid silicates at the extreme conditions found in the core-mantle boundary.
Animation

In photosystem II, the water-splitting center cycles through four stable states, S0-S3. On a baseball field, S0 would be...

Photosystem II
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Light-driven reactions are at the heart of human vision, photosynthesis and solar power generation. Seeing the very first step opens the door to observing...

Illustration showing electron orbitals ballooning in response to light
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New research shows that when a bunch of electrons zooms through the middle of a ring-shaped laser beam, the bunch can wind up with...

donut laser
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Researchers investigate how much damage spreads through molecules struck by a pulse from LCLS.

Two color mode
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This new technology could enable future insights into chemical and biological processes that occur in solution, such as vision, catalysis and photosynthesis.

UED liquid
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An LCLS imaging technique reveals how a mosquito-borne bacterium deploys a toxin to kill mosquito larvae. Scientists hope to harness it to fight disease.

A photograph of mosquito larvae.
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Hitting molecules with two photons of light at once set off unexpected processes that were captured in detail with SLAC’s X-ray laser. Scientists say...

Closeup image of molecular movie frames
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Researchers have squeezed a high-energy electron beam into tight bundles using terahertz radiation, a promising advance in watching the ultrafast world of atoms unfold.

SLAC’s Emma Snively and Mohamed Othman at the lab’s high-speed “electron camera."
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Siqi Li develops connections with people and concepts while working on new technologies for accelerators.

Siqi Li headshot