18.09.2023 21:27 Uhr, Quelle: Engadget

Stanford’s upgraded X-ray laser is up and running

The newly upgraded particle accelerator at the DoE’s Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) has produced its first X-rays. The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) upgrade, LCLS-II, can emit up to a million X-ray pulses per second (8,000 times more than the original) and an almost continuous beam 10,000 times brighter than its predecessor. Researchers believe it will enable unprecedented research into “atomic-scale, ultrafast phenomena” and shed new light on quantum computing, communications, clean energy and medicine.One of the keys to the accelerator’s powerful upgrade is its cooling abilities. The original LCLS, which went online in 2009, was capped at 120 pulses per second because of the natural limits of how many electrons could simultaneously travel through the accelerator’s room-temperature copper pipes. But the updated version includes 37 cryogenic modules cooled to negative 456 degrees Fahrenheit (colder than outer space), allowing it to “boost electrons to high e

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