The upgraded Linac Coherent Light Source, an X-ray laser at the US Department of Energy’s National Accelerator Laboratory, has successfully produced its first X-rays.
The upgrade offers unprecedented capabilities and heralds a new era in x-ray research. Scientists will be able to probe the details of quantum materials with unprecedented resolution to enable new ways of computing and communication. The applications are wide, from research that will enable the development of clean energy, through the development of new types of medicine, to the opening of completely new fields of scientific research.
The laser produces ultra-bright, ultra-short pulses of X-ray light that allows scientists to record the behavior of molecules, atoms and electrons in unprecedented detail. The original laser began operating in 2009, generating pulses of X-rays a billion times brighter than anything that had existed before.