The particle accelerator on Earth has achieved temperatures that are colder than outer space.
The X-ray free-electron laser is part of an upgrade project.
All particle movement ceases when the temperature is just 2 kelvins above absolute zero.
It's important for the machine to be in a cold environment because it can boost electrons through it with zero energy loss.
Even empty regions of space are not this cold, as they are still filled with the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, a remnant from shortly after the Big bang.
The LCLS-II X-ray free-electron laser has reached its operating temperature of 2 degrees above absolute zero, according to Andrew Burrill, director of the SLAC's Accelerator Directorate.
He said that LCLS- II is ready to start at 1 million pulse per second, which is a world record.
This is four orders of magnitude more pulse per second than LCLS, so we will be able to do it in a few hours.
This is one of the last things that LCLS-II needs to do before it can produce X-ray rays that are 10,000 times brighter than those created by its predecessor.
Researchers should be able to probe complex materials in unprecedented detail. Researchers can see how electrons and atoms interact in materials with unprecedented clarity thanks to the high-intensity, high-frequency laser pulse.
This will have a number of applications, from helping to reveal how natural and man-made systems convert sunlight into fuels, and how to control these processes, to understanding the fundamental properties of materials that will enable quantum computing.
There are 10 mysteries that could be untangled by the Large Hadron collider.
It took some work to create the cold weather inside the accelerator. The team needed low pressures to keep the helium from boiling.
The boiling temperature of water at sea level varies with the pressure, according to Eric Fauve, director of the Cryogenic Division.
In a pressure cooker, the pressure is higher and the water is hotter than at altitude, but in altitude, the pressure is lower and the water is hotter.
It is the same for him. Fauve said that if the pressure decreases, the temperature of helium will decrease.
To lower the temperature to 2.0 kelvin, we need just 1/30 of the atmospheric pressure.
It is one of the few places on Earth where 2.0 K helium can be produced, because the team uses five compressors that compress the helium to cool it and then let it expand in a chamber to lower the pressure.
Fauve explained that a cold compressor is a machine with a rotor and Impeller similar to an engine compressor.
He said that while spinning, the impeller creates a vacuum at the center of the wheel where the molecules are sucked, generating pressure at the edge of the wheel where they are ejected.
The helium escapes into the vacuum where it expands rapidly, cooling as it does, because Compression forces it to take its liquid state.
The ultra-cold hydrogen created at LCLS-II is a scientific curiosity.
Fauve said that at 2.0 kelvin helium becomes a superfluid, called helium II, that has extraordinary properties. It conducts heat hundreds of times more efficiently than copper, and it has a low resistance to flow, which makes it impossible to measure.
2 kelvins is as low as temperatures are expected to go.
Lower temperatures can be achieved with very specialized cooling systems that can reach a fraction of a degree above absolute zero.
He said that the laser doesn't have the ability to reach those extremes.
There are related content.
The record for the lowest temperature ever recorded in a lab has been broken.
Einstein changed the world in 7 ways.
There are 15 weird galaxies in our universe.
The article was published by Live Science. The original article can be found here.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
