Swiss X-ray laser reveals the hidden dance of electrons

Swiss X-ray laser reveals the hidden dance of electrons

Scientists at the X-ray free-electron laser SwissFEL have realised a long-pursued experimental goal in physics: to show how electrons dance together. The technique, known as X-ray four-wave mixing, opens a new way to see how energy and information flow within atoms and molecules. In the future, it could illuminate how quantum information is stored and lost, eventually aiding the design of more error-tolerant quantum devices. The findings are reported in Nature.

Much of the behaviour of matter arises not from electrons acting alone, but from the ways they influence each other. From chemical systems to advanced materials, their interactions shape how molecules rearrange, how materials conduct or insulate and how energy flows.

In many quantum technologies – not least quantum computing – information is stored in delicate patterns of these interactions, known as coherences. When these coherences are lost, information disappears – a process known as decoherence. Learning how to understand and ultimately control such fleeting states is one of the major challenges facing quantum technologies today.

Until now, although many techniques let us study how individual electrons behave, we have mostly been blind to these coherences. Scientists at SwissFEL from the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute of Nuclear Physics in Germany and University of Bern, have now developed a way to access them using a technique known as X-ray four-wave mixing.

“We learn how the electrons dance with each other – whether they hold hands, or if they dance alone,” says Gregor Knopp, senior scientist in the Center for Photon Sciences at Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, who led the study. “This gives us a new view on quantum phenomena and can change how we understand matter.”

Like NMR, but with X-rays

Conceptually, X-ray four-wave mixing is similar to nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), which today is used daily in hospitals for MRI scans. Both techniques use multiple pulses to create and read out coherences in matter. 

The process of four-wave mixing is also already well-established using infrared and visible light, where it allows scientists to investigate how molecules move, vibrate and interact with one another – with applications ranging from optical communications to imaging biological samples.

X-rays bring this same kind of powerful approach to a smaller scale and allow us to step into the world of the electrons. “Whereas other approaches tell us about how atoms or molecules as a whole interact with each other or with their surroundings, with X-rays we can zoom right in to the electrons,” says Ana Sofia Morillo Candas, first author of the paper.

This ability to zoom in on the interactions between electron has the potential to provide completely new insights not only into quantum information, but also into many other areas – for example biological molecules or materials for solar cells and batteries.

ow you would do it.” This approach is very different to previous attempts made at X-rays four-wave mixing, but to Knopp, it seemed like the obvious method to try. “We were amazed when we saw how large the signal was,” he adds.

It was the middle of the night, when Morillo Candas, at that time a postdoc at PSI, saw the signal in the control room of the Maloja experimental station at SwissFEL. She remembers: “It glowed like a light on the screen. To anyone else, it would look like nothing. But we jumped for joy.”

Read more on the PSI website

Image: Artistic impression of X-ray four-wave mixing – a technique that reveals how electrons interact with each other or with their surroundings. The ability to access this information is important for many fields: from understanding how quantum information is stored and lost to designing better materials for solar cells and batteries.

Credit: © Noah Wach

Turning sludge into semiconductors

Turning sludge into semiconductors

Danish researchers develop method for producing in-demand form of arsenic from groundwater treatment waste

Researchers from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland have developed a technique to convert toxic arsenic waste into a critical material for semiconductors and essential green-transition technologies.

“Arsenic has been considered a toxic contaminant for decades. It’s known as the King of Poisons and the Poison of Kings,” says Case van Genuchten, lead author on the recent publication. “It is very commonly found in groundwater and in gold and copper mine sites around the world.”

Groundwater can easily be treated to remove arsenic for drinking, but the leftover arsenic sludge remains toxic, as does the arsenic in mine tailings. Dealing with this waste has been a long-standing environmental and economic challenge, since there is no way to make arsenic non-toxic.

Van Genuchten and post-doc Kaifeng Wang, co-author of the study, saw a potential opportunity for valorizing arsenic waste by transforming it.

Read more on the CLS website

Image: Case van Genuchten and Kaifeng Wang in the lab

Credit: CLS

Sapoti: X-ray microscopy’s new frontier at Sirius

Sapoti: X-ray microscopy’s new frontier at Sirius

Designed to achieve resolutions on the order of 1 nanometer, the Sapoti station of the Carnaúba beamline combines cryogenics, ultra-high vacuum, and cutting-edge mechatronics engineering to reveal structures at the atomic scale

Sapoti (Scanning Analysis by PtychO for Tomographic Imaging) is one of the two experimental stations of the Carnaúba beamline at Sirius. The facility is one of the most sophisticated and challenging stations ever developed at the Brazilian accelerator. Its goal is to achieve resolutions on the order of 1 nanometer in coherent X-ray imaging and tomography, a performance that places it among the world’s most precise instruments in synchrotron light-based microscopy.  

The experimental stations of the Carnaúba beamline

The Carnaúba beamline operates in the 2.05 to 15 keV energy range, and was designed to perform simultaneous measurements with multiple X-ray analytical techniques, including diffraction, spectroscopy, fluorescence, and luminescence, as well as two- and three-dimensional imaging. It is the longest line at Sirius and uses a highly bright beam from an undulator, exploring the full potential for coherence and intensity that a fourth-generation synchrotron light source can provide.

Its infrastructure houses two complementary experimental stations. The Tarumã station was designed for in situ, in vivo (with plants), and cryogenic experiments, operating in an open environment with high flexibility for different types of samples. Sapoti operates in ultra-high vacuum and cryogenic conditions, which ensures even greater thermal and mechanical stability, leading to better spatial resolutions, as well as better conditions for experiments at the lower energy limit.

Read more on the Sirius website

Image: Part of the Carnaúba beamline’s infrastructure at Sirius. The beamline features two experimental stations located 136 and 142 m from the X-ray source, a vertically polarized undulator

Credit: Sirius

X-raying auditory ossicles – a new technique reveals structures in record time

X-raying auditory ossicles – a new technique reveals structures in record time

Scientists at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have refined an X-ray diffraction technique for detecting biological structures from nanometres to millimetres – reducing the time needed to make the measurement from around one day to about an hour. This opens up a wide range of possibilities for biomedical research – from analysing bone and tissue structures to supporting the development of new implants.

Biological materials are masterpieces created by nature. Bones, for example, are extremely hard, yet at the same time elastic enough to withstand lateral forces without breaking easily. This combination of properties results from their hierarchical structure as composite materials – they combine materials that have different structures on different scales. Human-made composite materials are similar in the way they are made up. In reinforced concrete, for example, the concrete component, consisting of cement and sand, can withstand high pressure, while a steel mesh provides high tensile strength and transverse stability. 

Until now, examining such biological materials in detail has required the use of several different instruments, such as electron microscopes or classic light microscopes. However, scientists at the PSI Center for Photon Science have now refined an X-ray diffraction technique that was developed at the institute ten years ago, allowing it to be used to characterise materials on scales from nanometres to millimetres simultaneously and much faster than before. A complete scan now only takes about an hour, instead of a whole day.

To demonstrate the efficiency of their method, the researchers used the Swiss Light Source SLS to reveal the alignment of collagen fibres in a human ossicle known as the incus, or anvil. Collagen fibres are thread-like protein structures that provide tensile strength and elasticity to bones. “In doing so, we have taken the leap from a scientific method to a practical technique,” says Christian Appel, postdoctoral researcher and first author of the study. The results have now been published in the journal Small Methods as its cover story. In future, this method could be valuable in areas such as the study of complex tissue, the analysis of bone diseases and the optimisation of implant designs.

Read more on the PSI website

Image: Scientists at PSI were able to observe the local collagen structures in an ossicle by scanning it with an X-ray beam. The different colours of the cylinders indicate how strongly the collagen bundles are spatially aligned in a section measuring 20 by 20 by 20 micrometres.

Credit: © Paul Scherrer Institute PSI/Christian Appel

Novel AI Method Sharpens 3D X-ray Vision

Novel AI Method Sharpens 3D X-ray Vision

NSLS-II scientists see around hidden corners of tiny objects, even when significant portions of data are missing

X-ray tomography is a powerful tool that enables scientists and engineers to peer inside of objects in 3D, including computer chips and advanced battery materials, without performing anything invasive. It’s the same basic method behind medical CT scans. Scientists or technicians capture X-ray images as an object is rotated, and then advanced software mathematically reconstructs the object’s 3D internal structure. But imaging fine details on the nanoscale, like features on a microchip, requires a much higher spatial resolution than a typical medical CT scan — about 10,000 times higher.

The Hard X-ray Nanoprobe (HXN) beamline at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, is able to achieve that kind of resolution with X-rays that are more than a billion times brighter than traditional CT scans.

Tomography only works well when these projection images can be taken from all angles. In many real-world cases, however, that’s impossible. For example, scientists can’t spin a flat computer chip around 180 degrees without blocking some of the X-rays. When parallel to the surface at high angles, fewer X-rays can penetrate the chip, limiting the viewing angles of the measurement. The missing data from this angular range produces a “blind spot,” leading the reconstruction software to produce blurry, distorted images.

“We call this the ‘missing wedge’ problem,” said Hanfei Yan, lead beamline scientist at the HXN beamline and corresponding author of this work. “For decades, this problem has limited the applications of X-ray and electron tomography in many areas of science and technology.”

Read more on the BNL website

Image: This 3D image of an integrated circuit showing slices through its thickness was reconstructed with a new technique that incorporates artificial intelligence called the “perception fused iterative tomography reconstruction engine.”

Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory

From superconductor to magnetic frustration and Fermi surface reconstruction

From superconductor to magnetic frustration and Fermi surface reconstruction

A collaborative team from MagTop, the Institute of Physics PAS in Warsaw and the URANOS beamline researchers at the SOLARIS Synchrotron, has unveiled an unexpected transformation in the 2D quantum material NbSe2. The article published in Physical Review B, titled ‘Magnetic frustration enforced electronic reconstruction in Ni-intercalated NbSe2: Suppression of electronic orders’ demonstrates that introducing nickel atoms into the crystal, forces electronic reconstruction, eliminating its characteristic such as superconductivity and charge ordering due to magnetic frustration.

Niobium diselenide (NbSe2) is a well-known 2D layered crystal where electrons organize themselves in remarkable ways, it exhibits non-magnetic ground state. Around 30 K, the electrons form a charge-density wave; a periodic ripple in their density and at 7 K, electrons combine into pairs and the material becomes superconducting, carrying electric current without resistance. These two electronic orders coexist naturally and make NbSe2 a model system for studying complex quantum behaviour.

In the article, researchers explored what happens when nickel atoms are inserted between the layers of NbSe2 i.e. Ni0.19NbSe2. This particular, intermediate concentration of Ni, was chosen to introduce moderate disorder into the studied system. Instead of simply disturbing the structure, the added nickel fundamentally changes how electrons move and interact. Both superconductivity and the charge-density wave disappear, and the material begins to behave like a frustrated magnet. Measurements show that the intercalated nickel atoms introduce magnetic moments that interact with each other in conflicting ways. As the sample is cooled, these moments attempt to align in opposite directions, but cannot settle into a single, well-ordered pattern. This “magnetic frustration” is a hallmark of systems where competing interactions prevent the formation of a simple magnetic state.

Read more on the SOLARIS website

Image: Fermi surface maps at 84 K of pristine NbSe2 and Niinterncalated NbSe2 measured using ARPES. (a), (b) Comparison of the Fermi surfaces for pristine NbSe2 and Ni0.19NbSe2 resp. obtained from the sum of intensities of horizontal and vertical linear polarizations. The Ni-intercalated sample shows clear Fermi surface reconstruction, indicated by red arrows. (c), (d) Fermi surface maps of NbSe2 and Ni0.19NbSe2 obtained from the sum of intensities of left- and right-circular polarizations, further highlighting modifications in the electronic structure due to Ni intercalation (red arrows).

First demonstration of stripe-free multilayer monochromator imaging

First demonstration of stripe-free multilayer monochromator imaging

Diamond Light Source scientists have achieved a long-sought breakthrough in X-ray optics – the first demonstration of stripe-free X-ray imaging using multilayer (ML) monochromators. The results, published in Advanced Optical Materials and Optics Express, show how advanced fabrication and coating techniques can completely remove the stripe artefacts that have long limited the image quality from ML optics.

ML monochromators are essential for high-flux X-ray imaging, diffraction, and spectroscopy. They offer up to 100 times higher photon flux than crystal monochromators, but at a cost; faint, stripe-like intensity variations in the beam caused by tiny figure errors in the optical surface. These “stripe artefacts” reduce image clarity and complicate analysis, especially in demanding applications like tomography. Until now, eliminating these artefacts has proved extremely difficult.

The Diamond team tackled the root cause: the optical curvature error. Using state-of-the-art, in-housed developed ion beam figuring (IBF) in the Optics Fabrication Facility, they produced multilayer monochromator substrates with record-breaking slope errors below 30 nanoradians root mean square (rms) – equivalent to flattening a surface to atomic-level precision without degrading microroughness. These substrates were then coated in Diamond’s Multilayer Deposition System, achieving exceptional layer thickness uniformity of 0.1% along the mirror length. Reflectivity matched design targets to within 0.01 nm in layer spacing, ensuring perfect optical performance.

Read more on the Diamond website

Image: (L-R) Hongchang Wang , Murilo Bazan Da Silva, Wai Jue Tan,  Arindam Majhi, Riley Shurvinton, Wadwan Singhapong, Paresh Pradhan and Kawal Sawhney

Credit: Diamond Light Source

PANOSC consortium signs Memorandum of Understanding with the European Open Science Cloud

PANOSC consortium signs Memorandum of Understanding with the European Open Science Cloud

The Director General of the ESRF, Jean Daillant, representing the 11 partners of the Photon and Neutron Open Science Cloud (PaNOSC) , has signed the EOSC Federation  Memorandum of Understanding with the EOSC Association today, in presence of ILL representatives.

The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) Federation aims to create a seamless system where researchers across the continent can easily find, access, and use data and services to drive innovation. By linking hundreds of data repositories and tools, EOSC will make it simpler for scientists to find, share, analyze, and reuse FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) research outputs.

PaNOSC as the EOSC Node of the Photon and Neutron Open Science Cluster (PaNOSC), which includes all synchrotron and neutron sources in Europe, aims to connect the Photon and Neutron European research infrastructures to EOSC. Currently 11 Photon and Neutron Research Institutes have committed to providing data and services to the EOSC Federation through the PaNOSC EOSC Node – these are ESRF (as host institute), ALBA, DESY, ELETTRA, ESS, European XFEL, HZDR, ILL, MAX IV Laboratory, PSI, and SOLEIL.

Read more on the ESRF website

Image: The signature took place in December at the ESRF. The DG of the ESRF, Jean Daillant, signed on behalf of PaNOSC. Mark Johnson (first left) represented the ILL in the event.

Credit: Alexia Daurat

A new series of [M(B11H11)2] 3-anions with metals in their highest known oxidation states

A new series of [M(B11H11)2] 3-anions with metals in their highest known oxidation states

In collaboration with Prof. Finze’s research group (University of Würzburg) and Dr. Alexey Maximenko (SOLARIS National Synchrotron Radiation Centre at Jagiellonian University) Prof. Adam Slabon’s research group has successfully synthesized and comprehensively characterized a new series of anions of the type [M(B11H11)2]3- (M = Cu, Ag, Au). The nido-[B11H11]4- ligand coordinates to copper, silver, and gold stabilizing them in the exceptionally high formal oxidation state +V. This is the highest oxidation state known to date for these metals. XANES analysis, carried out by Dr. Alexey Maximenko, additionally confirmed the unusually high oxidation state of copper in K3[Cu(B11H11)2]·5H2O.

DFT calculations showed the relative stability of different structural isomers, while experimental investigations revealed an unusual property of the silver complex. X-ray structural analyses of single crystals revealed that [Ag(B11H11)2]3⁻exists in equilibrium between two coordination forms: a kinetically stable η5 species with Ag(V) and a labile η2species with Ag(I). When cooled below 130 K, a reversible phase transition occurs in which the ligand coordination changes from η5 na η2 and reverts back when heated. This is the first observation of such low-temperature isomerization in this class of compounds.

Read more on the SOLARIS website

Image: Reversible transition between (n-Bu4N)3[Ag+V(η5 – B11H11)2] and (n-Bu4N)3[Ag+I (η2-B11H11)2]

50th Anniversary of the SSRL synchrotron radiation & protein crystallography initiative

50th Anniversary of the SSRL synchrotron radiation & protein crystallography initiative

Synchrotron-based protein crystallography continues to accelerate, driven by new and upgraded high-brightness sources, improved optics, faster large-area detectors, robust automation and streamlined data handling. These advances are making increasingly challenging structural biology projects feasible and are reshaping how synchrotron experiments integrate with today’s wider structural biology methods. While AI models are now routinely used in  molecular replacement software for macromolecular crystal structure determination, synchrotron experimental methods remain vital for detailed model refinement, and even validating AI models. Also extracting key chemical information, with anomalous dispersion at tuneable beamlines still playing an important role especially in identifying metals and other such atoms in proteins.

This special issue in Journal of Synchrotron Radiation, edited by John R. Helliwell and Marian Szebenyi, and their Overview with Colin Nave, with a Perspective from Keith Hodgson, as well as articles from a majority of the facilities worldwide, explores the evolving landscape in depth. It also highlights the expanding impact of fragment screening and binding studies (from cryogenic up to body temperatures) and the rapidly developing frontiers of time-resolved and serial crystallography. In particular, the issue charts the synergy between XFEL-based serial femtosecond crystallography and serial synchrotron crystallography, culminating in recent demonstrations of microsecond time resolution at upgraded synchrotrons such as ESRF–EBS, pointing to a future where synchrotrons and X-ray lasers together enable ever more powerful studies of biological structure, dynamics and function.

Access the special issue here

Image Credit:

Phillips, J.C., Wlodawer, A., Yevitz, M.M. and Hodgson, K.O., 1976. Applications of synchrotron radiation to protein crystallography: preliminary results. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 73(1), pp.128-132. 

Rosenbaum, G., Holmes, K.C. and Witz, J., 1971. Synchrotron radiation as a source for X-ray diffraction. Nature, 230(5294), pp.434-437.

“Research, a collective adventure”

“Research, a collective adventure”

Through a series of portraits, SOLEIL sets out to meet the people who make the synchrotron what it is. For this sixth episode, Edwige Otero, a scientist on DEIMOS—one of SOLEIL’s 29 beamlines—agreed to take part.

Driven from an early age by the joy of understanding, Edwige Otero naturally gravitated toward research. But just as important was her desire to contribute to a collective endeavour, one in which knowledge and discoveries are shared. From Lorraine to Canada, from chemistry to physics, her path reflects a constant passion for science and dialogue.

“Truth be told, I didn’t choose research; I simply followed my interest in science, step by step, and that’s where it led me.” When asked about the origins of her career, Edwige Otero, now a scientist on the DEIMOS beamline at SOLEIL, takes us back to her childhood. “There was no predetermined path, but rather a sensitive, open-minded upbringing and a “sincere and collective investment in the pursuit of knowledge.”

“I was lucky to grow up in a family where reflection and curiosity mattered a lot, where people always took the time to answer our questions,” she explains. “Wondering, asking, and trying to understand became second nature,” she adds. “It’s such an exhilarating feeling when you finally realise: so that’s how it works!”

“All I wanted was to be older”
In the days before the Internet, Edwige learned to look for answers wherever she could: in books, museums, exhibitions, open days… Her first physics–chemistry teacher also played a decisive role: “He made you want to understand everything,” she recalls. “He often took us beyond the official curriculum, and whenever he did, he would say: you’ll learn that later. All I wanted was to be older already.”

Read more on the SOLEIL website

Ancient Asteroid Provides Evidence of Amino Acid Precursors

Ancient Asteroid Provides Evidence of Amino Acid Precursors

SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENT

Using the Advanced Light Source (ALS), researchers identified nitrogen-rich polymers in samples from the asteroid Bennu, revealing early chemical alterations in rocky bodies.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT

The results support the idea that asteroids, such as Bennu, may have carried water and the other chemical building blocks of life to Earth in the distant past.

Asteroid holds hidden secrets

In 2023, NASA returned material gathered from the 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid Bennu, which formed from minerals and ice in a primordial nebula. The rocks were gathered as part of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, the first US mission to return samples from an asteroid. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) continues to participate in a series of multi-institutional research studies investigating Bennu’s chemical makeup to better understand how our solar system and planets evolved.

Past research on Bennu samples at Berkeley Lab’s ALS revealed that many minerals formed in watery environments. In the current study, the researchers rolled back the clock to examine a narrow period shortly after the asteroid formed but before it was exposed to the water that altered the chemical nature of the rock.

The researchers identified long chains of organic molecules, richer in nitrogen and oxygen than the previous samples. With this information, the team reconstructed the conditions during the earliest periods of the asteroid’s existence.

Read more on the ALS website

Anna Pakhomova gets ERC grant to study possible life in icy moons

Anna Pakhomova gets ERC grant to study possible life in icy moons

Anna Pakhomova, scientist at the ESRF, has been awarded the ERC Consolidator Grant for her project OCEAN, which aims to study the effect of high pressure on organic chemistry in large ocean worlds. The grant also acknowledges the new capabilities of high-pressure ESRF beamlines like ID27, which went through the Extremely Brilliant Source upgrade.

The presence of water in its liquid state is thought to have driven Earth’s prebiotic chemistry and is considered an essential element for the emergence of life. This is why icy moons harboring subsurface oceans are the most promising objects for extraterrestrial habitability. 

There are several current and future space missions that will remotely probe intriguing Jupiter and Saturn’s icy moons. The ESA’s JUICE mission will arrive in 2031, the NASA’s Europa Clipper in 2030 and DragonFly will be launched in 2028.

“Until today, however, the question of the existence of life has always been looked at from the Earth’s perspective, while in fact, the pressure in the oceans of the Earth and those in icy moons is very different”, explains Pakhomova. “We know of some volatile organics in those large oceans that could be biological precursors, but we do not have information on their chemical evolution at the right pressure-temperature-composition conditions in water”, she adds. “This is what we want to find out with OCEAN”, she adds.

Read more on the ESRF website

Image: Anna Pakhomova on beamline ID27

Credit: S. Candé

Toward greener production of hydrogen

Toward greener production of hydrogen

McGill researchers improve efficiency, stability of electrolysis process

Hydrogen fuel could be an important part of the clean energy revolution. But it faces some challenges. Most hydrogen today is made from natural gas using a process called steam methane reforming, which produces lots of carbon dioxide.

“While hydrogen is a clean fuel, the way that we make it isn’t clean at all,” says Hamed Heidarpour, a PhD student in Ali Seifitokaldani’s Electrocatalysis Lab at McGill University in Montreal.

Creating hydrogen from water through electrolysis, on the other hand, generates no CO2. But the method is inefficient, expensive, and requires a lot of electricity, which doesn’t always come from renewable sources.

Heidarpour and his colleagues found a way to make the process more energy-efficient and stable – and thus more viable for real-world industrial applications.

Their version of electrolysis combines water with hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), an organic compound that can be produced by breaking down non-food plant materials such as pulp and paper residue. In traditional electrolysis, hydrogen is produced at the cathode, and oxygen at the anode. But the reaction – called the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) — is slow and takes a lot of energy. By including an organic molecule like HMF, the OER is replaced with the more energy-efficient oxidation of HMF, which has the bonus of also producing hydrogen.

“At the same energy input, we can double the production of hydrogen,” he says.

Heidarpour focused on designing a better catalyst to make the HMF oxidation reaction even more energy-efficient, and more commercially viable. The normal copper catalyst does not last long enough for long-term use, so the team added a protective layer of chromium to stabilize it. Their research was published in Chemical Engineering Journal.

Read more on the CLS website

Image: Hamed in the lab

Credit: CLS

A new world record: LCLS approaches 100,000 pulses per second on the path to a million

A new world record: LCLS approaches 100,000 pulses per second on the path to a million

Experiments running at these higher pulse rates will allow scientists to capture ultrafast processes with greater precision, collect data more efficiently and explore phenomena that were previously out of reach.

Two years after teams at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory celebrated completion of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) upgrade project, LCLS-II, the X-ray laser has reached a major milestone: delivering 93 kHz – almost 100,000 pulses per second – a new world record for X-ray free-electron lasers. The achievement marks a critical step toward the machine’s goal of up to 1 million pulses per second, 8,000 times more than the original machine.

Experiments running at these higher pulse rates will allow scientists to capture ultrafast processes with greater precision, collect data more efficiently and explore phenomena that were previously out of reach. It transforms the ability of scientists to explore atomic-scale, ultrafast phenomena that are key to a broad range of applications, from quantum materials to energy technologies and medicine.

Read more on the SLAC website

Image: From left, Yuantao Ding, William Colocho and Franz-Josef Decker in SLAC’s accelerator control room during the ramp-up to 93 kHz.

Credit: Olivier Bonin/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

A new window into the brain: laser powered electron microscopy accelerates connectome mapping

A new window into the brain: laser powered electron microscopy accelerates connectome mapping

Mapping the brain’s wiring is one of neuroscience’s toughest challenges, limited by slow and costly imaging tools. A new PEEM-based method could speed up whole-brain mapping, deepen our understanding of brain function and disease, and make connectomics accessible to far more researchers.

A worldwide multidisciplinary team consisting of scientists from Diamond Light Source University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Leiden University and Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology have joined forces to tackle one of the grand challenges in neuroscience: understanding how billions of neurons connect to form the brain’s intricate networks. To do this, the team employed Photoemission Electron Microscopy (PEEM), a more that 50 years-old technique that’s been primarily used to study the magnetic, chemical and electronic properties of materials and according to the authors, could now transform brain mapping. The study, published in PNAS, introduces PEEM as a new tool for connectomics, the field that seeks to chart every connection between neurons. By adapting a surface-science microscope for neuroscience, the team demonstrated that they could image brain tissue at synaptic resolution, hundreds of times faster than conventional techniques. 

Read more on the Diamond website