14 DAY TRIAL // This amazing video is a virtual tour through the Linear Coherent Light Source (LCLS), a free-electron laser installation located at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The facility can produce X-rays of extreme intensities.
The LCLS shot its first laser beam through its long tunnel in April 2009. According to experts at the lab, this installation is a partial reconstruction of the last third of the original linear accelerator that the former Stanford Linear Accelerator Center operated.
The thing that sets this facility apart from other radiation sources is that it can produce hard X-rays, a type of light that is about 109 times brighter than conventional synchotron radiations. The wavelength of photons produced by this laser is about the width of an atom.
This enables the LCLS to conduct imaging experiments at scales that were previously inaccessible. The video above takes us through most of the facility, along the length of its main tunnel.