A half-mile-long tunnel is now colder than most of the universe because it is 30 feet underground. The upgrade project to the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray free-electron laser is part of it.
The temperature at which the accelerator becomes superconducting is minus , and it can boost electrons to high energies with zero energy lost in the process. It is one of the last things that will happen before LCLS- II produces X-ray beams that are 10,000 times brighter, on average, than those of LCLS and that arrive up to a million times per second.
Mike Dunne, director of LCLS, says that in just a few hours, LCLS-II will produce more X-ray pulse than the current laser has produced in its lifetime. It will take X-ray science to the next level, paving the way for a whole new range of studies and advancement of our ability to develop revolutionary technologies to address some of the most profound challenges facing our society.
With these new capabilities, scientists can examine the details of complex materials with unprecedented resolution to drive new forms of computing and communications; reveal rare and fleeting chemical events to teach us how to create more sustainable industries and clean energy technologies.
It is a chilling feat.
The first light produced by the world's first hard X-ray free-electron laser was a billion times brighter than anything that had come before. The rate of X-ray pulse per second is limited by the temperature of the copper pipe.
The LCLS-II upgrade project was launched in 2013 to make the X-ray laser thousands of times more powerful. The old copper accelerator was removed and replaced with a series of 37 modules, which hold niobium metal. These are surrounded by three nested layers of cooling equipment and each layer lowers the temperature until it reaches absolute zero.
The LCLS-II is powered by copper and operates at the lowest possible temperature of 4 degrees above absolute zero. The Cryogenics team has worked on site throughout the pandemic to install and commission the system and cool it down in a record time.
One of the cryoplants built specifically for LCLS- II cools helium gas from room temperature all the way down to its liquid phase at just a few degrees above absolute zero.
On April 15, the new accelerator reached its final temperature of 2 K, and on May 10, it is ready for initial operations.
The director of the SLAC's Accelerator Directorate said that the process had to be done carefully to avoid damaging the cryomodules.
It's bringing it to life.
The project required a new electron source and two strings of undulator magnets that could generate both hard and soft X-rays. Researchers can image materials and biological systems at the atomic level with hard X-rays. Soft X-rays can be used to track chemistry in action and offer insights into new energy technologies. The project was brought to life by the collaboration of four other national labs and Cornell University.
The expertise of Jefferson Lab, Fermilab and SLAC was pooled for research and development on cryomodules. The vessels were packed and shipped to the lab by truck after they were tested extensively. The Jefferson Lab helped procure the elements of the cryoplants.
The LCLS-II project required years of effort from large teams of technicians, engineers and scientists from five different DOE laboratories.
Toward the first X-rays.
The next step is to use more than a megawatt of microwave power to accelerate the electron beam from the new source. The electrons will move close to the speed of light when they pass through all 37 cryomodules. The electron beam will be forced on a zigzag path through the undulators. The electrons will emit the world's most powerful bursts of X-rays if everything is aligned just right.
LCLS uses the same process to generate X-rays. LCLS-II can deliver up to a million pulse per second, 10,000 times the number of X-ray pulse for the same power bill, because it uses superconducting cavities instead of warm copper.
Once LCLS-II produces its first X-rays, both X-ray lasers will work in parallel, allowing researchers to conduct experiments over a wider energy range, capture detailed snapshots of ultrafast processes, probe delicate samples and gather more data in less It will allow scientists from all over the world to pursue the most compelling research ideas at the facility.
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