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The article reports that the scientists of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, California, have successfully completed a free-electron laser (FEL) facility which can achieve lasing at a wavelength of 1.5 Å. Experts believe that this FEL, the first to operate in the hard X-ray regime, will open up vast new areas for scientific exploration in the field of light-source science. They state that this source will help in study of atomic and molecular science.

The article discusses on the free-electron lasers (FELs) operating at X-ray wavelengths to gather detailed information on how matter interacts and arranges itself at atomic and molecular scales. It states that the output from the FEL is around 108 brighter than current synchrotron sources. The information gathered by the X-ray FELs about molecules, atoms and their electronic states are more efficient than current synchrotron X-ray sources.