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New X-Ray Laser Technique Reveals Magnetic Skyrmion Fluctuations
A new “two-bucket” method of delivering pairs of X-ray pulses gives a 1,000-fold improvement in seeing magnetic fluctuations that could lead to improved data storage materials.
Scientists Create ‘Diamond Rain’ That Forms in the Interior of Icy Giant Planets
SLAC’s X-ray laser and Matter in Extreme Conditions instrument allow researchers to examine the exotic precipitation in real time as it materializes in the laboratory.
Researchers Create Molecular Movie of Virus Preparing to Infect Healthy Cells
With SLAC’s X-ray laser, scientists captured a virus changing shape and rearranging its genome to invade a cell.
Newly Upgraded Laser Allows Scientists to Peer Further Into the Extreme Universe at SLAC’s LCLS
Tripling the energy and refining the shape of optical laser pulses at LCLS’s Matter in Extreme Conditions instrument allows researchers to recreate higher-pressure conditions and explore unsolved questions relevant to fusion energy, plasma physics and materials science.
Philip Bucksbaum Elected to American Physical Society Leadership Position
Following the 2017 American Physical Society (APS) general election, Philip Bucksbaum will be vice president of APS in 2018 – an election that places him in the presidential line. He will become president-elect in 2019 and president in 2020.
Franklin Fuller and Cornelius Gati Named 2017 Panofsky Fellows at SLAC
Over the next five years they’ll work on getting significantly more information about how catalysts work and improving biological imaging methods.
Scientists Watch ‘Artificial Atoms’ Assemble into Perfect Lattices with Many Uses
A serendipitous discovery lets researchers spy on this self-assembly process for the first time with SLAC’s X-ray synchrotron. What they learn will help them fine-tune precision materials for electronics, catalysis and more.
Scientists Discover How Dense, Extraterrestrial Ice can Form in Just Billionths of a Second
A flash of green laser followed by pulses of X-rays, and mere nanoseconds later an extraterrestrial form of ice has formed.
Scientists See Molecules ‘Breathe’ in Remarkable Detail
The research team was able to watch energy from light flow through atomic ripples in a molecule. Such insights may provide new ways to develop a class of materials that improve efficiency and reduce the size of applications like solar cells and memory storage devices.
Scientists Get First Direct Look at How Electrons ‘Dance’ with Vibrating Atoms
Extraordinarily precise measurements -- within millionths of a billionth of a second and a billionth of a hair's breadth -- show this ‘electron-phonon coupling’ can be far stronger than predicted, and could potentially play a role in unconventional superconductivity.
