The contribution of X-rays was not limited to medical aspects only, but scientists also used them to explore the structures of particles and microscopic particles, and the more intense the X-rays used in the experiment, the more accurate the image obtained by the experimenter.
According to a new study, large atoms in some molecules behave in a strange way when they are irradiated from the world’s most powerful X-ray laser, appearing like a tiny black hole swallowing all the electrons of the surrounding particles.
This study not only adds valuable information about the universe around us, but may also help us understand what is much closer to us, through a better analysis of viruses, bacteria, and small complex structures on Earth.
Scientists at Kansas State University used the world’s most powerful X-ray laser, known as LCLS, at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. This device is capable of generating laser pulses within a single square centimeter with a power of 100 quintillion watts. According to research assistant Sébastien Bottet, this is equivalent to an intensity 100 times greater than all the sunlight falling on Earth concentrated within a single square centimeter.
Scientists fired successive laser pulses, each lasting 30 femtoseconds (a femtosecond is one quadrillionth of a second), at a narrow beam of particles flowing through a vacuum tube. Each pulse struck an average of only one particle, shattering it into scattered fragments, and this process was repeated hundreds of thousands of times. Researchers say these are the most powerful pulses ever used in experiments studying particles.
(Power is the energy emitted divided by the time it is emitted.)
Scientists tested two types of molecules known to be involved in biological processes: methane and iodobenzene, both of which are composed of carbon, hydrogen, and iodine. Iodine atoms are heavier than carbon and hydrogen atoms and contain a much larger number of electrons than hydrogen and carbon atoms. Such heavy elements are found in biological molecules that scientists want to study. For example, humans use iodine to produce thyroid hormones, so scientists want to learn more about these atoms.
Both carbon and hydrogen are transparent to the X-rays used, meaning they do not absorb any of them. Therefore, iodine absorbed these intense pulses. Based on previous studies, scientists predicted that the laser pulses would strip electrons from the deeper layers of the iodine atom, leaving it with only the electrons bound to its nucleus. The iodine atom then became a positive ion and began to extract negative electrons from the surrounding carbon and hydrogen atoms, until it had absorbed all the electrons it could obtain from neighboring atoms.
This new discovery will help scientists plan and interpret experiments related to LCLS technology, as well as experiments involving high-amplitude lasers, such as the European X-ray FEL. The research findings show that when interpreting X-ray data, particularly biomolecular imaging data, special attention must be paid to regions containing heavy atoms, such as metal clusters in proteins, since all current simulations of the effects of radiation on cell destruction treat all atoms relatively equally.
Future research will explore how electrons move around larger molecules, gradually extending to molecules like proteins. This research will also analyze how electrons flow within a molecule exposed to X-rays, representing a significant leap forward in the development of high-frequency blast lasers.
While the LCLS laser fires 120 pulses per second, the European XFEL laser will fire 27,000 pulses per second when it becomes operational this October. The next major breakthrough for the LCLS 2 laser is expected around 2020, when it will fire one million pulses per second.
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