U.S. regains the lead in friendly x-ray laser ‘arms race’

The United States has regained the global lead in x-ray lasers. The Linac Coherent Light Source II (LCLS-II), a so-called x-ray free electron laser (XFEL) at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California, has produced its first flashes of x-rays, lab officials announced today. Supporting studies of everything from the structures of biomolecules to the conditions in the cores of planets, the upgraded machine will produce data 8000 times faster than the original LCLS and in some ways surpass its main rival, the European XFEL near Hamburg, Germany. “There isn’t anything you can do at the European XFEL that you can’t do at LCLS-II once it is up and running,” says Saša Bajt, an x-ray optics scientist at the German Electron Synchrotron Laboratory (DESY). In fact, some work will be easier at the new machine, she says. However, both machines serve large communities of users, so the LCLS-II won’t in any way render its rival obsolete. “There is, of course, friendly competition,” Bajt says, “and that is healthy.” SLAC researchers began planning the $1.1 billion upgrade almost as soon as the original LCLS came on in 2009 . The Department of Energy, which owns SLAC, approved construction in 2016. “The last few years have been agonizing and enticing and exciting all in equal measure,” says Mike Dunne, a physicist at SLAC and director of the LCLS. “But we’re finally there.” In a free electron laser, a linear accelerator, or linac...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news