Scientists create record-breaking X-ray beam

The wavelength of the beam, created by RIKEN and the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI), is the shortest ever measured and opens up new possibilities for viewing the structure of atoms and molecules at an unprecedented level of detail.

Scientists produced the record-breaking light using SACLA, a cutting-edge X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) facility owned by RIKEN in Japan.

XFEL permits researchers to view and control objects on a previously inconceivable and completely unparalleled scale, by providing much shorter wavelengths and higher laser intensities, opening new opportunities in everything from medicine and drug discovery to nanotechnology.

SACLA is one of only two facilities in the world which can produce radiation which is one billion times brighter and pulses one thousand times shorter than other existing X-ray sources, with experiments using the record-breaking laser to start soon.