The ALS is an excellent incubator of new scientific techniques and instrumentation. Many of the technical advances that make the ALS a world-class soft x-ray facility are developed at the ALS itself. The optical components in use at the ALS—mirrors and lenses optimized for x-ray wavelengths—require incredibly high-precision surfaces and patterns (often formed through extreme ultraviolet lithography at the ALS) and must undergo rigorous calibration and testing provided by beamlines and equipment from the ALS's Optical Metrology Lab and Berkeley Lab's Center for X-Ray Optics.

New and/or continuously improved experimental techniques are also a crucial element of a thriving scientific facility. At the ALS, examples of such "technique" highlights include developments in lensless imaging, soft x-ray tomography, high-throughput protein analysis, and high-power coherent terahertz radiation.

Applied Science/Techniques Highlights

Lensless X-Ray Imaging in Reflection

Bioactive Glass Scaffolds for Bone Regeneration

Direct-Write of Silicon and Germanium Nanostructures

AP-XPS Measures Active MIEC Oxides in Action

A New Light on Disordered Ensembles

Paving the Way to Nanoelectronics 16 nm and Smaller

Investigating Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography Mask Defects

Lensless Imaging of Whole Biological Cells with Soft X-Rays

Imaging Antifungal Drug Molecules in Action using Soft X-Ray Tomography

Using Light to Control How X Rays Interact with Matter

Robust, High-Throughput Analysis of Protein Structures

The ALS X-Ray Streak Camera: Bringing the Ultrafast and Ultrasmall into Focus

Laser Seeding Yields High-Power Coherent Terahertz Radiation

Tailored Terahertz Pulses from a Laser-Modulated Electron Beam

Biological Imaging by Soft X-Ray Diffraction Microscopy

New Zone Plate for Soft X-Ray Microscopy at 15-nm Spatial Resolution