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Physics

The world's ultimate X-ray machine will start up in 2023

The Linac Coherent Light Source II X-ray laser will be so fast and bright that it will allow people to create movies of atoms moving inside molecules

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

28 December 2022

The LCLS-II electron gun in a Berkeley Lab clean room where it was assembled. (Marilyn Chung/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

The electron gun that powers the Linac Coherent Light Source-II X-ray laser

marilyn chung/lawrence berkeley

Early in 2023, electrons flying at nearly the speed of light in a tunnel beneath California will produce the brightest X-rays ever seen on Earth, allowing us to examine atoms and molecules in unprecedented detail.

These record-breaking X-rays will be produced at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, which has upgraded its Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray laser to be the fastest and brightest in the world. While the LCLS produced about 100 X-ray pulses each second, LCLS-II will …

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