---
title: "The World’s Most Powerful X-ray Laser is Getting 10,000 Times Brighter"
description: "The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), the worlds most powerful x-ray laser, is getting a major upgrade that will make it 10,000 times brighter and over 8,000 times faster."
date: "2016-04-12"
modified: "2016-11-29"
authors:
  - name: "Miguel Santos"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/heymigstwitter-com"
url: "https://futurism.com/stanfords-super-bright-x-ray-laser-get-much-brighter"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "laser"
  - "LCLS"
  - "stanford"
  - "x-ray"
---

# The World’s Most Powerful X-ray Laser is Getting 10,000 Times Brighter

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Image-A-8.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory\</em\>*

## Upgrading X-Rays

Stanford has been studying atoms using a super-bright x-ray laser called the [Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS)](<https://slacportal.slac.stanford.edu/sites/lcls_public/Pages/Default.aspx>). Now, the laser is [being upgraded](<http://www.engadget.com/2016/04/04/slac-x-ray-laser-upgrade/?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000589>) to be 10,000 times brighter, which will turn what is already the world’s most powerful x-ray laser into a bigger powerhouse that’s capable of a million pulses per second. Compared to the current laser’s 120 pulses per second output, this new version is over 8,000 times faster.

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/slac-lcls-ii-schematic.jpg>)
**SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory**

In order to accomplish this feat, the team needed a cold niobium-based [superconducting accelerator](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_electric_machine>) cavity that reaches -456 degrees F (-271.111 C), allowing it to conduct electricity with absolutely no losses.

This upgrade by no means makes the [first laser](<https://futurism.com/?s=laser>) obsolete. In fact, using both laser beams in conjunction will allow coverage of a wider energy range, enabling scientists to study processes that either couldn't be recorded before, or would have taken ages to examine in full. Studying these processes could eventually lead to important discoveries in the fields of medicine, electronics, and energy.

The upgrade is expected to reach completion by early 2020.

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