This will be the brightest X-ray laser in the world

According to Andrew Burrill, associate director of the SLAC laboratory, the LCLS-II and its higher pulse rate will make a crucial difference for these molecular films. “If you imagine a strobe light going off 120 times, you see one picture. If it goes off a million times in one second, you get a very different picture. So you can make a much better movie,” he says.

Different functionality

The LCLS accelerator pushes the electrons through a copper tube that operates at room temperature and is intended to be activated only in short bursts. However, the LCLS-II is designed for continuous operation, which means that it generates enormous amounts of heat. A copper cavity would absorb too much of that heat. That’s why engineers decided on a new superconducting accelerator made up of dozens of 40-foot-long devices called cryomodules

, designed to operate at 2 degrees above absolute zero. They are kept at operating temperature by a massive cryogenic facility above ground.

SLAC scientists hope to have their first electron beam with the LCLS in January -II, followed by their first X-ray of the summer, which they will refer to as their first “Big Light” event.

According to Cryan, LCLS-II will allow SLAC scientists to answer questions they have been trying to solve for years. “How does energy transfer work in molecular systems? How does charge transfer work? Once we understand some of these principles, we can apply them to understand how we can perform artificial photosynthesis and build better solar cells.”

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