 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...
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 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 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.
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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...
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 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...
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...
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 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...
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.
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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.
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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 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 01, 2008
Construction highlights for the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) this month include... 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...
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...
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 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...
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...
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...
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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