Shorter the Better

Japanese scientists from Research Institute RIKEN and Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI) have created an X-ray with the shortest wavelength.  The beam of X-Ray laser light has a wavelength of 1.2 Angstroms (unit to measure wavelength).

Scientists achieved this record-breaking light by using a facility known as SACLA (SPring-8 Angstrom Compact free electron LAser), a high-tech X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) facility which was unveiled by RIKEN in February this year. It resulted in the most advanced X-ray free electron laser. The laser has shorter wavelength and thus high intensity than others.

XFEL offers opportunity to observe and manoeuvre objects on a scale which cannot be met by any other lasers. This eventually would open up new doors in the field of medicine, drug research and nanotechnology. SACLA has the capacity to deliver radiation one billion times brighter with pulses one thousand times shorter than other existing X-ray sources.