{"id":245789,"date":"2026-10-22T05:37:23","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T10:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/x-ray-free-electron-laser-sets-new-record-for-shortest-high-energy-pulses"},"modified":"2026-10-22T05:37:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T10:37:23","slug":"x-ray-free-electron-laser-sets-new-record-for-shortest-high-energy-pulses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/x-ray-free-electron-laser-sets-new-record-for-shortest-high-energy-pulses","title":{"rendered":"X-ray free-electron laser sets new record for shortest high-energy pulses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_HaLoDkjrKs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Researchers at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have measured the shortest high-energy X-ray pulses ever recorded at an X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL). The pulses had photon energies of about 9 kiloelectronvolts (keV) and clocked in at durations of 100 to 400 attoseconds\u2014mere billionths of a billionth of a second. The results are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41566-026-02026-7\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in Nature Photonics.<\/p>\n<p>These high-energy, or \u201chard,\u201d attosecond X-ray pulses are invaluable for researchers studying the universe at its smallest, fastest scales. \u201cThe pulses are both energetic enough to look deep into atomic systems and fast enough to record electronic motion frozen in time,\u201d said Agostino Marinelli, a study author and professor of photon science, particle physics and astrophysics at SLAC.<\/p>\n<p>The challenge, Marinelli explained, wasn\u2019t creating these ultrashort pulses, but rather proving that it had been done. \u201cOver the course of several years, we\u2019ve learned how to create these high-energy attosecond pulses, but measuring pulses this short is really, really difficult. This was the first diagnostic that proves the pulses are indeed only a few hundred attoseconds long.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have measured the shortest high-energy X-ray pulses ever recorded at an X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL). The pulses had photon energies of about 9 kiloelectronvolts (keV) and clocked in at durations of 100 to 400 attoseconds\u2014mere billionths of [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-particle-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245789\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}