X-ray laser fires strongest pulse ever recorded

Probably the most highly effective pulse of X-rays ever reported has been produced on the SLAC Nationwide Accelerator Laboratory in California. In solely 440 billionths of a billionth of a second, or attoseconds, it packed practically a terawatt of energy – a thousand occasions greater than the common yearly output of a nuclear energy plant.

“In the near term, it will be hard to do better,” says Agostino Marinelli at SLAC, who labored on the challenge.

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