The United States has just got a new X -ray laser tool cut to study the mystery of nature

With a suit of re -manufactured devices at the SLAC LCL convenience, researchers see widespread improvement in data standards and pick up scientific inquiries that were just a year ago.

Some of the biggest mysteries of science appear on the smaller scales. Researchers investigating super small phenomena from the quantum nature of Super Super Super Super Super Supercondicatory to mechanics running photosynthesis – the Department of Energy SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory finds the Link Source Source (LCL).

Like a giant microscope, LCL also sends ultra -byte X -ray pulses on a suit of special scientific devices. Along with these tools, scientists take the crisp images of the atom motions, open the chemical reaction, investigate the properties of the material, and find the basic process in living things.

After more than a decade discoveries, the LCL is a significant upgrade known as LCLS II-which will eventually increase its X-ray pulse rate from 120 to one million pulses per second.

It increased by about 10,000 10,000 times that scientists were allowed to re -imagine their scientific tool kit, renovate existing tools and design new designs to deal with these questions, which was impossible to solve.

Scattered X -ray

Two of these tools, qrixs and chemrixs, use a technique, called echoing analistic X -ray (Rixs). With this procedure, researchers bomb a sample with X -ray pulses, which interest the electrons from the inside, then release this extra energy in the form of light. Researchers use this light to re -form and study the properties of a substance in detail.

According to their nature, Rixs measurements are very “photon hungry”, the lead scientist of the SLAC and the QRC device lead Georgi Dakovsky. Most X -rays are absorbed or removed from detectors during experiments. For every billion photons coming in the sample, only one detector will reach.

“With the actual pulse rate of the LCL, it was the work of the art of occupying only a handful of photons. We had to wait enough time to collect enough data for the meaningful results,” said Dacooski.

But now, the LCL produces 100 to 10,000 times more X -ray pulses every second. Rixs measurements that took place once a day are now produced in minutes or even seconds.

“This addition has already made a surprising change,” said Dacooski.

“Not only the data is coming fast and with the explanation that we have not seen before, it really helps us to see how the material is changing over time. We can see how the energy flows from the material and how the nuclear components interact.

The upgrade made it possible to start QRexes this spring: a lighting device containing a 12 -foot -spectrometer that rotates in 110 degrees. The toll uses rixs to investigate the quantum dynamics of solid crystal substances.

Although its size allows scientists to test any content from multiple angles with extraordinary resolution, it also requires a huge arrival of X -ray to produce standard data. These capabilities have long been on the list of LCL consumer community’s desire, but its high demand for photon has so far made it inaccessible.

Today, researchers are using Qrixs to study materials such as high temperature super conductor, which transfer electricity with zero energy loss. Getting a better understanding of quantum phenomena behind supercompotation can help us design more efficient quantum computers, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) medical applications designs and potentially equipped power grid.

Although Qrixs focuses on quantum material studies, chemicals are manufactured to analyze the chemistry of liquid samples from ultra -water to chemical solvents. Cameras give researchers a detailed look at chemical processes, such as intermediate steps of photoshites, which one day can lead to the development of artificial photosantic systems.

Installed in 2021, Camerars had been collecting data on the LCLS beam line for many years before the LCLS II upgrade. Cristian Connis, a SLAC staff scientist and a camerape tool, said that the increase in X -ray has changed the possibility of research for the device.

“Before that, we could not investigate the low -concentration solutions, so we had to use high concentration that did not fully reflect the chemistry in realistic situations,” Kannas said.

“Now, we can analyze the main stone patterns in chemical applications and still get high quality data, which was not possible before.”

Detection of atomic and molecular reaction

At the closing station of the time -consuming nuclear, molecular and optical science (TMO), several new devices are taking advantage of the upgrade of LCLS II to study how electron kickstarts acts in the biology, chemistry and material science.

One of these devices, in a multi -resolution cookie box (MRCO), is a circular array of 16 electron detectors designed to take full advantage of the increasing repetitive rate of LCLS.

By connecting this sophisticated system with LCL’s ultraviolet laser pulses, researchers can identify the moment on which the electron is removed from the molecule. They can also measure the earliest precision energy spectrum and the incompatible distribution of excluded electrons.

This measurement together helps researchers understand how the charging and energy are transmitted to their natural trips to molecular systems: only one billionth of a billion a second. Finally, this research tests the limits of quantum theory and aid better categories and more efficient fuel design.

“We are not limited to this tight window before,” says SLAC staff scientist and MRCO device’s superiority, says Razib Obey. “This upgrade expanded the window of what we can study in every experience.”

TMO also has a new dynamic reaction microscope, or dream, device. As the name suggests, the dream is a powerful reaction microscope that allows researchers to study individual molecules that go through chemical change.

The dream focuses on the X -ray beam on the same molecule, until its electrons are snatched until it “explodes” and all the bonds in the molecule are broken. The bursting pieces are then detected and used to restructure a highly detailed picture of the molecule. By compiling millions of these images, researchers can eventually make a molecular film of a chemical reaction.

“Photoc chemicals such as solar power, like photo synthesis, how does DNA absorb the fennel energy when it moves from one side of a molecule to the other? This device gives us insights on how these things work on a basic level.”

This ground technique relies fully on the rate of the LCL’s rapid pulse rate. To fully capture a molecular reaction, researchers need to take a picture from about one million different angles, which requires several million X -ray shots.

In 2020, the team made a prototype to showcase their abilities on the original beam line. He spent a week taking data, but only the Ino movie gathered enough to make a single frame, which he hoped he would compile.

“With the original setup, it takes years to fully understand a single reaction,” said Karean.

“Now that the dream upgraded LCLS is running on the beam line, we are finding a new theory about these processes. This upgrade marked a crucial turning point – before it has made impossible research possible.”

The huge increase in the volume of data collected in the LCL is not only making completely new ways of research – it is also producing a massive data set for the training of basic AI models of training. Such AI models can help researchers collect data more efficiently in search of new content and relief operators as they tune the beam lines in real time.

“This integration of AI technology is ready to change the landscape, said Matthews Killing, director of Science and Research and Development at the LCLS, which helps in sharp scientific discovery.”