The world's most powerful X-ray laser has begun its work in the heart of California. This project is on the lookout for new scientific breakthroughs and is ready to provide mankind with unexplored knowledge.

The novelty, dubbed Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) II, is under the roof of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Its home is Stanford University, which carried out the project on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy. The road to its creation was long and thorny - more than a decade of labor and a billion dollars of investment.

The LCLS II is not just a laser, it is a work of science. It is capable of producing up to one million X-ray flashes every second - 8,000 times more than its predecessor. And the brilliance of its radiation is 10,000 times brighter than the first version.

Such incredible power opens doors for scientists into the world of atomic processes. And many of them were previously unobservable. Studies of cellular structures, deep dives into ultrafast chemical reactions, and the study of quantum phenomena. Now all this becomes possible thanks to LCLS II.

Behind the laser's performance are the latest technologies: a superconducting gas pedal, 37 cryogenic modules that ensure operation at extremely low temperatures, and two undulators responsible for generating X-rays.

The world is already familiar with several similar devices that have brought discoveries in space and photosynthesis. But LCLS II promises to open up new uncharted horizons of scientific research.

Read more here.

Image: Unsplash