Credit: Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Lab
This is a graphic representation of a cavity-based X-ray free-electron laser. The electron beam (blue) travels through an undulator (brown and white). Inside the undulator, the beam releases X-ray pulses (orange). These pulses bounce around a set of four mirrors until they've transformed from incoherent to coherent X-rays (yellow). The coherent X-rays then leave the cavity mirror system using the researcher team's Q-switching technique and continue down the accelerator to scientists inside of experimental halls.