Tag Archive for 'X-ray laser'

You et al. studied supercooled water at timescales before ice formation by heating high- and low-density amorphous ices using infrared ultrafast laser pulses, followed by X-ray scattering; they observed a rapid increase in the heat capacity indicating a critical divergence at 210 K coincident with enhanced density fluctuations. Image credit: POSTECH University.

Physicists Find First Experimental Evidence of Elusive Critical Point in Supercooled Water

Mar 30, 2026 by News Staff

By probing supercooled water with ultrafast lasers before it crystallizes, physicists at Stockholm University observed telltale signs of a long-theorized...

Dr. Thomas Gaumnitz, a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Wörner’s group, with the setup that generates the shortest laser pulses in the world. Image credit: ETH Zurich.

Swiss Physicists Set Record for Shortest Laser Pulse

Nov 2, 2017 by News Staff

A team of physicists at ETH Zürich in Switzerland has produced the shortest-ever laser pulses: just 43 attoseconds (an attosecond is an incomprehensible...

Professor Chang and co-authors broke the record for the shortest light pulse. Image credit: University of Central Florida.

Shortest Laser Pulse Lasts 53 Attoseconds

Aug 8, 2017 by News Staff

An international group of physicists and engineers, led by Professor Zenghu Chang of the University of Central Florida, has produced the shortest-ever...

In this illustration, an ultra-intense X-ray laser pulse from SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source knocks so many electrons out of a molecule’s iodine atom (right) that the iodine starts pulling in electrons from the rest of the molecule (lower left), like an electromagnetic version of a black hole. Many of the stolen electrons are also knocked out by the laser pulse; then the molecule explodes. Image credit: DESY / Science Communication Lab.

Researchers Create Molecular Version of Black Hole

Jun 2, 2017 by News Staff

When a team of physicists focused the full intensity of SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) Coherent X-ray Imaging instrument — the world’s...

The oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) of photosystem II cycles through five states, where four electrons are sequentially extracted from the OEC in four light–driven, charge-separation events. The ellipses show snapshots of the metal cluster observed in the study. Image credit: Mary Zhu.

Researchers Image Photosynthesis in Action

Jul 10, 2014 by News Staff

Using the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory’s Linac Coherent Light Source – the world’s most powerful X-ray laser, a multinational...