What is an X-ray Free Electron Laser or XFEL?

XFEL SLAC Explainer: www6.slac.stanford.edu/resear...
An X-ray Free-Electron Laser (XFEL) is a particle accelerator built to generate powerful X-ray pulses used in experimental stations. Scientists use XFELs to take snapshots of atoms and molecules at work, providing atomic resolution detail on ultrafast timescales to reveal fundamental processes in materials, technology and living things. These snapshots can be strung together into “molecular movies” that show chemical reactions as they happen. This video explains how XFELs work and talks about some of their applications.
Video is produced by SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory where the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is located.
Written, edited and produced by Olivier Bonin.
0:00 INTRO How to make a molecular movie?
0:36 XFELs in the world and their applications
1:29 HOW do they work?
3:43 EXAMPLES of how XFELs are used. Medical research.
4:07 PHOTOSYNTHESIS research for sustainable fuels
4:54 QUANTUM materials research for computing
5:07 FUSION research and matter in extreme conditions
5:45 CONCLUSION
6:07 CREDITS
Musicbed SyncID: MB01GQUSBAWLUVH

[@Ebrahim_Ghelichkhani]

Great!

[@extropian314]

Question: Do they have to gather up the frames one by one, over many runs, and then place them each at their place in the final movie, *or* are all the frames actually able to be recorded sequentially in a single run? I'm thinking it's the first choice, since there are only 1 million pulses per second, even though each pulse is short.

[@SLAC]

It's the first choice. The frames are not acquired sequentially. Then they have to be put together sequentially with computer algorithms.

[@lalitasharma6687]

What is seeding and sase 😮😮

[@about-R]

👍👍👍👍👍

[@jjjj5776]

there is one more in israel at the university of Ariel. it is also under constuction. although it is not an xfel it is just fel with tera herz

[@whatthefunction9140]

So its a laser thats free of x rays?

[@SLAC]

No. In the context of a "free electron laser," the term "free electron" refers to an electron that is not bound to an atomic nucleus or a specific atom. It is free to move independently within a material or a particle accelerator. "Free electron" is a term in physics to refer to such electrons that will be the vector for electric currents. Essentially electrons that are free. An XFEL is a tool that uses Free Electrons to generate an X-ray laser beam.

[@extropian314]

The narrator emphasized it incorrectly.

[@afterthesmash]

"Could" in this rarefied regime doesn't come cheap. Qualified customers must be moonshot certified. If you have to ask, you're not dreaming big enough.