 November 04, 2009
Third LCLS Call for Proposals Extended to WEDNESDAY, November 4: Submit proposals for experiments with Soft and hard X-Rays at the AMO, SXR and XPP Stations for review and consideration in the September-December 2010 cycle. more...
November 03, 2009
We are currently limited to a spectral range down to 750 eV, but we are developing operations at lower energies, down to 510 eV, for the future. The minimum pulse duration in standard operation is ~ 70 femtoseconds FWHM. The minimum pulse duration in standard operation is ~ 70 femtoseconds FWHM. We have developed lower current operation which is now available for users. In this low current moded pulse lengths have been shown to be less than 20 femtoseconds. We believe the pulses are much shorter more...
November 01, 2009
Election results were announced at the LCLS Users' Meeting on October 20, 2009. Congratulations to Todd Ditmire (AMO), Jan Luning (SXR), Oleg Shpyrko (XCS) and Martin Meedom Nielsen (XPP) who were elected to the LCLS Users' Executive Committee. more...
October 28, 2009
Instrument scientist Christoph Bostedt gives an inside view of operations at the Atomic, Molecular and Optical science instrument and first user science at the Linac Coherent Light Source in this SLAC video profile. more...
October 21, 2009
The SSRL/LCLS Users' Meeting and Workshops finished up October 21 following three full days of presentations. more...
October 19, 2009
While not the smallest lettering ever created, the tiny initials "LCLS" have been written with what may be the world's most potent pen. Etched into boron carbide, a super-hard substance used in accelerator shielding and body armor, the lettering has helped researchers at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory explore the capabilities of the world's first hard X-ray laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source. more...
October 15, 2009
It's been a busy few weeks at the Linac Coherent Light Source. The Atomic, Molecular and Optical instrument's second user group, led by The Ohio State University physicist Louis DiMauro, wrapped up a five-day run early Tuesday morning, and the third group is set to start science today. more...
October 14, 2009
The LCLS offers a powerful route to recovering the structure of individual biomolecules from random diffraction snapshots of series of identical molecules. However, biological molecules can assume a variety of conformations. Mapping the conformational heterogeneity of macromolecules presents a formidable challenge to X-ray crystallography, single-molecule coherent diffraction, and cryo-electron microscopy. more...
October 09, 2009
Last week, on October 1, SLAC Today reported the beginning of the first user run at the Linac Coherent Light Source, and on October 6, a sparkling cider toast on the roof of the Near Experimental Hall, initiated by happy users, commemorated its successful completion. more...
October 05, 2009
With experimentalists just beginning to reveal the ultrafast secrets of atoms and molecules in motion with the Linac Coherent Light Source, researchers at SLAC are already working on the next generation of X-ray free electron laser. Building on theoretical work by SLAC beam theorist Gennady Stupakov, the Echo-7 experiment will test a new way to produce an X-ray beam with an important characteristic not found in today's X-ray lightsources. more...
October 01, 2009
This month the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (Stanford, CA) will open the world's shortest-wavelength free-electron laser for use by guest scientists. First operated in April at 0.15 nm the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is the first free-electron laser to emit hard x-rays. The LCLS can deliver 80 fs pulses containing about 10 trillion x-ray photons at wavelengths tunable between about 0.15 and 1.5 nm. more...
October 01, 2009
SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source opened for business this morning, and the first user experiment is now underway. As the world's first hard X-ray laser, the LCLS offers scientists the ability to study the fundamental behavior of atoms and molecules on unprecedented length- and time scales. more...
September 23, 2009
LCLS-PULSE seminar "THz pulses from 4th generation lightsources: Perspectives for fully synchronized THz pump X-ray probe experiments", Dr. Michael Gensch, BESSY, Helmholtz-Center Berlin, Wednesday, September 23, 2009, 4:00-5:00 PM, Bldg 137, Room 322. more...
September 18, 2009
It takes a lot of energy to strip all ten electrons from an atom of neon. Doing it from the inside out, knocking away the most-closely-held, innermost electrons first, is an even rarer feat. But the brilliant X-ray pulses of the Linac Coherent Light Source have done just that, in the successful first test of the unprecedented X-ray laser with its first scientific instrument. The result demonstrates the machine's unique capabilities—with the world's brightest and shortest X-ray laser pulses—and m more...
September 15, 2009
The Linac Coherent Light Source beam will pack a wallop, providing 10 trillion X-ray photons in a flash of about 100 femtoseconds. For comparison, it takes today's best storage-ring-based synchrotron radiation facilities a full second to provide that many photons. Beginning next spring, researchers will begin to conduct experiments with these powerful bursts of X-ray light using the Soft X-Ray instrument, located on the second LCLS beamline to begin operation. more...
September 04, 2009
A prototype device capable of splitting an x-ray pulse into two adjustable fractions, delaying one of them with the aim to perform x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy and pump–probe type studies, was designed, manufactured, and tested. The device utilizes eight perfect silicon crystals in vertical 90° scattering geometry. Its performance has been verified with 8.39 keV synchrotron radiation. more...
September 02, 2009
Last week at the 31st Free Electron Laser Conference in Liverpool, United Kingdom, SLAC physicists David Dowell and Paul Emma were awarded the FEL Prize for their technical achievements with the LCLS, and John Galayda accepted a certificate for the entire LCLS team, lauding their excellent work in creation and commissioning of the unprecedented machine. more...
September 01, 2009
Photon correlation spectroscopy with coherent X-rays reveals the elementary diffuseive motion of atoms. Nature Materials, News & Views, Stephenson et. al., September 2009. more...
August 18, 2009
The LCLS AMO team first opened the beam shutter, letting in the beam and bathing the instrument in the world's brightest, shortest pulses of laser X-rays. The AMO team is now carefully aligning the instrument and will spend the next several weeks finalizing preparations for the first experiments, which will begin in early October.
more...
August 14, 2009
In 1999, a year before I joined SLAC, Keith Hodgson asked me to chair a committee with the charge to develop and document the scientific case for a new revolutionary light source at SLAC. The committee brainstormed about what to do with pulses of X-rays that were ultrashort and ultrastrong and had this special property called coherence. Many of us went through a rapid learning curve, exploring what such hot beams would do to a sample, what it meant that the pulses were a thousand times faster th more...
August 07, 2009
SLAC will receive $21.8 million in new ARRA funding that will catalyze instrumentation construction and improvements at the laboratory's two light source research facilities, LCLS and SSRL. more...
August 05, 2009
The LCLS achieved SASE FEL saturation at a fundamental wavelength of 1.5 Angstroms on April 14, 2009. This achievment was presented at the 2009 Particle Accelerator. more...
August 04, 2009
With the launch of the LCLS just around the corner, scientists are already talking about ways to extend the capabilties of the world's first operating hard X-ray free electron laser, or FEL.
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July 29, 2009
The LCLS has had a dramatic start up at its shortest wavelength (1.5 Å) reaching saturation on April 14, 2009 with 1.1 mJ per pulse energy. This is the baseline performance, but there is room for more and this workshop will discuss the scientific opportunities that near term options for enhanced performance (wavelength reach, polarization, pulse duration, multiplexing options, etc.) will enable as well as the science drivers for the long term development of LCLS. more...
July 20, 2009
We would like to present to you with the second LCLS Users’ Newsletter. The newsletter will be published periodically to bring you updates from LCLS. Since Issue 1, many new exciting things have happened at LCLS, amongst others... more...
June 19, 2009
It's official! A new office building is in the works for the Linac Coherent Light Source.
more...
June 12, 2009
Even before the Linac Coherent Light Source achieved lasing, the first call for proposals for beam time went out. Twenty-eight proposals were submitted by 219 scientists from 16 countries to get beam time on the Atomic, Molecular and Optical science instrument in fall 2009. An external proposal review panel selected the 11 best proposals. Each experimental team is sending a team member to SLAC in July to participate in the commissioning of the instrument and there will be first beam to the users more...
June 03, 2009
The first science instrument for the Linac Coherent Light Source was moved into its experimental hutch yesterday, marking a major milestone in preparing the Linac Coherent Light Source for its first wave of users this September. A team of riggers and vacuum assembly staff moved the Atomic, Molecular and Optical instrument from the Mechanical Fabrication Department Vacuum Shop to the Near Experimental Hall, Hutch 1. more...
June 03, 2009
The individuals who serve at the associate laboratory director level at SLAC are an extraordinarily dedicated group. For the past two years, Steve Kahn has led the Particle Physics and Astrophysics Directorate through some of the most turbulent years at the laboratory. Dale Knutson has led the Linac Coherent Light Source Directorate for the last year, and brought additional leadership to the laboratory that is delivering success not only in LCLS, but also in the LCLS Ultrafast Science Instrument more...
May 27, 2009
Nikolaus Schwentner, Free University Berlin, May 27, 2009, 4:00-5:00 PM, Bldg 40, Cypress Room. more...
May 26, 2009
Coherent X-Ray Imaging instrument, the fourth scientific instrument to be installed at the Linac Coherent Light Source is scheduled to come online in 2011. more...
May 21, 2009
Dr. Hae Ja Lee, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 10:00 - 11:00 am, Bldg. 137 2nd floor conference room. more...
May 15, 2009
The deadline for submitting proposals for experiments with soft X-rays at the AMO and SXR stations is May 15th. more...
May 05, 2009
LCLS Seminar: "Longitudinal Coherence Measurements at FLASH"; William F. Schlotter, University of Hamburg, Institute for Experimental Physics; Tuesday May 5, 2009, 10:00-11:00 AM, Redwood (ROB) Building 48, Room B. more...
April 28, 2009
The world's brightest X-ray source sprang to life last week at the U.S. Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) offers researchers the first-ever glimpse of high-energy or “hard” X-ray laser light produced in a laboratory. more...
April 27, 2009
LCLS-PULSE: "Tunable angular momentum and ultrafast magnetization dyanmics in GdFeCo"; Andrei Kirilyuk; Wednesday April 29, 2009, 2:00-4:00PM, Cypress Room, Bldg. 40. more...
April 24, 2009
I don't expect I will ever, as long as I live, see such a beautiful, smooth turn-on of any light source. more...
April 10, 2009
n April 10, Dr. David Shapiro will present "Soft X-Ray Scattering at Beamline 9-0-1 of the Advanced Light Source" at 2 pm in the Second Floor Conference Room of Building 137. more...
April 09, 2009
On April 9, Sogang University's Prof. H. Kim Sogang will present "Coherent X-ray Scattering for Nanostructures & Surface Dynamics" at 4 pm in the Red Slate Room, Building 280C. more...
April 02, 2009
After successful commissioning of the LCLS injector and main linac with its 2 bunch compressors in 2008, the new beam transport line through the undulator hall to the main dump was commissioned earlier this year with one undulator already installed. more...
March 31, 2009
Interested scientists are invited to participate in the proposed Matter in Extreme Conditions endstation at SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source, and to attend next month's MEC workshop.
more...
March 30, 2009
SLAC's linac started up again last Wednesday after three weeks' downtime to install 21 of the 33 undulator magnets that will help generate X-rays in the Linac Coherent Light Source. The LCLS commissioning team completed the installation and initial alignment with impressive speed, taking less than half the time allotted for the work. If all continues to go well, the linac's electron beam could make its first test run through the new undulators as soon as April 4.
more...
March 18, 2009
Scientists at SLAC and other institutions have been thinking and modeling upgrades to LCLS. These range from near transform limited pulses to new undulators to polarization control. The properties of LCLS will be reviewed and these opportunities and the challenges they present will be described. more...
March 16, 2009
Even though the Linac Coherent Light Source's Atomic, Molecular and Optical science instrument has yet to be assembled, the first AMO users were already on site last week for the First AMO Beamtime Preparation Meeting. more...
March 04, 2009
Machinery up and down the last third of the linear accelerator fell silent Monday morning when the Linac Coherent Light Source shut off for three weeks of scheduled downtime.
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March 03, 2009
After journeying more than 100 meters through undulators and diagnostic equipment, X-rays from the Linac Coherent Light Source will wiggle into the subterranean Near Experimental Hall and, beginning in 2010, zip into the X-ray Pump Probe science instrument.
more...
March 02, 2009
The Linac Coherent Light Source is presently in its third phase of electron beam commissioning. more...
February 11, 2009
When the Linac Coherent Light Source starts producing the world's first hard X-ray laser pulses later this year, they will all be headed to one place: the Atomic, Molecular and Optical science instrument. more...
February 03, 2009
The Linac Coherent Light Source reached another milestone last Wednesday evening, when a beam of electrons wiggled its way through a row of magnets and produced the instrument's first X-rays. more...
December 15, 2008
On Saturday afternoon, December 13, a series of electron beams zipped down the full length of the Linac Coherent Light Source for the first time. more...
December 08, 2008
More than 500 lab employees signed up for a firsthand look at the newly constructed facilities for the Linac Coherent Light Source during last Thursday's LCLS tour. more...
December 02, 2008
As the leaves change and temperatures drop, it's time to turn the heat on—even for the electron beam at the Linac Coherent Light Source. Thanks to some last-minute hard work, the LCLS laser group installed a laser heater for the stream of electrons that will power the X-ray laser. more...
November 25, 2008
On November 17, Turner Construction achieved "Substantial Completion" of civil construction on the Linac Coherent Light Source site; Turner has finished up all major field construction, and is beginning review of their written plans for the new buildings with SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory staff. more...
November 24, 2008
All SLAC staff members are invited to take a sneak peek at the Linac Coherent Light Source on Thursday, December 4. Come revel in the engineering feat of more than 537 meters of tunnel and take in the impressive new equipment while chatting with LCLS scientists. more...
November 17, 2008
The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Main Control Center is usually fairly quiet during the annual two-month shutdown of the linear accelerator. But this year, the operators were hard at work leading a renovation project to improve the ergonomics of the MCC and fully integrate controls for the Linac Coherent Light Source. more...
October 03, 2008
This fall, the change of seasons coincides with a change in momentum in the construction of the Linac Coherent Light Source. Since the closing weeks of summer, the LCLS construction fences came down, contractors are wrapping up the last of the civil construction and hardware installation is taking off. See the progress in this gallery of recent images taken throughout the LCLS facility. more...
September 25, 2008
The Linac Coherent Light Source will generate X-rays 10 billion times brighter than any source before it. Being the first of its kind, the LCLS has presented engineers with a number of unique technical hurdles. Measuring just how much punch the LCLS beam actually packs has proved especially challenging. more...
September 18, 2008
The temperature is now stabilized at a mild 68 °F (20 °C), support pedestals are in place and aligned, the paint is dry and physicists are moving in. That's the scene in the Linac Coherent Light Source Undulator Hall, where the last items on the civil construction punch list are being checked off. more...
September 10, 2008
A physicist, a chemist and a microbiologist walk into a bar… or better yet, a conference on X-ray imaging. It's not the set-up for a joke, but a good opportunity for Mike Bogan to interface with potential users of the Linac Coherent Light Source. more...
September 08, 2008
Several colleagues at Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago recently received special recognition for their contributions to the Linac Coherent Light Source. more...
September 01, 2008
Construction highlights for the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) this month include... more...
August 26, 2008
Congratulations to the scientists and engineers of the Linac Coherent Light Source Ultrafast Science Instrumentation project, or LUSI. The team last week successfully completed Department of Energy review for Critical Decision 2, or CD2. more...
August 26, 2008
The injector for the Linac Coherent Light Source has a shiny new electron source, or cathode, thanks to a recent repair project aimed at correcting a problem that began earlier this summer. more...
August 19, 2008
The balance of activity on the Linac Coherent Light Source project has shifted from building infrastructure to installing hardware, with all but the final construction "punch-list" items completed. The tunnels, utilities, fire suppression systems, cooling water and electrical systems are nearly ready for prime time. more...
August 07, 2008
LCLS hereby invites the world’s research community to submit scientific proposals for experiments with soft X-rays at the AMO experimental station. Proposals for the first LCLS operation period (July-December 2009) must be submitted by September 1, 2008. more...
August 01, 2008
Construction highlights from the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) this month include... more...
July 25, 2008
Construction of the Linac Coherent Lights Source (LCLS) continues at a rapid pace. Since the completion of tunneling earlier this year, crews have finished out the Far Experimental Hall and X-ray Tunnel, installed utility systems in the Central Utilities Plant and throughout the facility, and are approaching completion of the Near Experimental Hall (NEH). more...
July 08, 2008
Flash imaging of nanoscale objects undergoing ultrafast changes is now a technical possibility, according to a recent paper published in the June 22 edition of Nature Photonics. The results are a direct precursor to research that will be conducted using SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). more...
June 27, 2008
Construction highlights for the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) for June, 2008 include...
more...
June 24, 2008
This month SLAC welcomes Jochen Schneider, the most recent addition to the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) team. Schneider initially came to SLAC last January as a visiting professor. His appointment as new director of the Experimental Facilities Division for the LCLS marks a big step toward making the LCLS a scientific reality. more...
June 03, 2008
This week, more than 50 prospective Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) users arrived at SLAC for a workshop focusing on the Atomic, Molecular and Optical (AMO) science instrument. more...
May 30, 2008
What do you get when you combine 120 concrete trucks filled with more than 1,000 cubic yards of concrete, with 350,000 pounds of steel rebar? "Happy physicists," according to Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) Conventional Facilities Manager David Saenz. more...
May 29, 2008
When particle accelerators gave birth to the powerful X-ray microscopes known as synchrotrons, they revolutionized the study of virtually every field of science. Now the Linac Coherent Light Source promises to make an equally big leap, making movies of atoms and molecules in action and changing the way we think about matter. more...
May 23, 2008
Construction highlights from the Linac Coherent Light Source for May, 2008 include... more...
May 16, 2008
The Office of Science semi-annually conducts reviews of its large major projects and this week it focused on the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). Dan Lehman, the Director of the Office of Project Assessment in the Office of Science, leads this process and he arrived at SLAC with a large team of world-class scientists, engineers and management consultants to look over all aspects of the LCLS project. more...
May 12, 2008
Installation of the first undulator pedestals for the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is set to begin this week in the Undulator Hall. The final shipment of the stands arrived at SLAC last April from Argonne National Laboratory, where they were designed.
more...
April 21, 2008
In preparation for the upcoming call for proposals to use the LCLS for XPP experiments, a workshop will be held at SLAC June 20-21, 2008 to inform future XPP users of the status of the LCLS and assist them with preparing their proposals for beam time. more...
April 11, 2008
In preparation for the upcoming call for proposals to use the LCLS for AMO experiments, a workshop will be held at SLAC June 2-3, 2008 to inform future AMO users of the status of the LCLS and assist them with preparing their proposals for beam time. more...
March 14, 2008
The AMO end-station is in the final design process, with detailed drawings of the mechanical components being produced, commercial components specified and controls and data acquisition software being designed. This process is expected to last until the summer when a review of the design will be held and procurement of components begin. more...
February 07, 2008
Last week, trucks arrived with the first shipment of specially designed stands for Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) magnets and diagnostics to be installed in the Beam Transport Hall. This section of the LCLS, called the "linac-to-undulator," will connect the end of the linac to the undulator magnet arrays. more...
January 30, 2008
The tunneling breakthrough into the Far Experimental Hall (FEH) of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) on January 14th was the culmination of months of planning and excavation work. Having begun nearly a year ago, the FEH cavern is nearly complete, with only the pouring of the concrete slab floor remaining. Once the floor is poured, construction of the experimental hutches can begin. more...
January 22, 2008
Last week, undulator work in SLAC's Magnetic Measurement Facility (MMF) for the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) entered a new chapter as workers for the first time mated an undulator with the girder to which it will eventually be mounted in the Undulator Hall (UH). more...
January 18, 2008
When the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) was first conceived in 1992, an x-ray free-electron laser was considered an expensive and technically high-risk endeavor to create a light source with unprecedented and indeed uncertain potential. Early SLAC reports describing the LCLS concept hint at its scientific potential, but not much more. more...
January 15, 2008
Yesterday morning a crowd of about 60 onlookers, bedecked in hard-hats and reflective vests, witnessed the final tunneling break through for construction of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) in the dimly lit cavern of the Far Experimental Hall (FEH). more...
December 12, 2007
While most of SLAC sleeps, a select group remains hard at work, driving ahead construction progress on the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). Since last spring, tunnel contractor Affholder Inc. has used double shifts to speed ahead tunneling progress, with the second shift on the clock from 4:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. more...
December 06, 2007
Menlo Park, CA—Persis S. Drell has been named director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), effective immediately, Stanford University President John Hennessy announced Thursday. Drell, a professor of physics at SLAC, has held a series of sen more...
November 21, 2007
How do you take a picture of something as thin as a strand of hair that's moving at the speed of light? more...
November 12, 2007
Construction crews working on the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) site are busier than ever these days. Last week, the Beam Transport Hall, which bisects the research yard, began receiving the final yards of concrete for the roof after being connected to the Undulator Hall. more...
November 06, 2007
As construction continues on the experimental halls that will receive the beam from the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), the instruments that will go inside still exist only in the minds and computers of the designers. But in the past few months, those instruments are getting closer to reality. more...
October 23, 2007
The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) project is a collaboration that brings together components and equipment from dozens of suppliers. Last month, Craigslist.org joined that supply chain. more...
October 18, 2007
Last week, a team working with the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) construction project repositioned dozens of undulator magnets to make room for pre-assembly of the undulator support pedestals. For months, the undulators have remained stored in wooden crates in the Collider Hall, and now the first stages leading to their installation next year are set to begin. more...
October 05, 2007
Pief Panofsky built a laboratory with a single purpose: to probe the fundamental structure of matter with the world’s largest electron accelerator. During his lifetime, the lab reinvented itself many times in order to stay on the frontiers of scientific discovery. more...
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