page_title: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
section_title: Accelerator
hierarchical_section_title: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory / Components / Accelerator
caption_attribution_description: English: Fragment of the tunnel of the SLAC linac.
context_page_description: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a United States Department of Energy National Laboratory operated by Stanford University under the programmatic direction of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science and located in Menlo Park, California. It is the site of the Stanford Linear Accelerator, a 3.2 kilometer linear accelerator constructed in 1966 and shut down in the 2000s, which could accelerate electrons to energies of 50 GeV.
  Today SLAC research centers on a broad program in atomic and solid-state physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine using X-rays from synchrotron radiation and a free-electron laser as well as experimental and theoretical research in elementary particle physics, astroparticle physics, and cosmology.
context_section_description: The main accelerator was an RF linear accelerator that accelerated electrons and positrons up to 50 GeV.  At 3.2 km (2.0 mi) long, the accelerator was the longest linear accelerator in the world, and was claimed to be "the world's most straight object." until 2017 when the European x-ray free electron laser opened. The main accelerator is buried 9 m (30 ft) below ground and passes underneath Interstate Highway 280. The above-ground klystron gallery atop the beamline, was the longest building in the United States until the LIGO project's twin interferometers were completed in 1999. It is easily distinguishable from the air and is marked as a visual waypoint on aeronautical charts.
  A portion of the original linear accelerator is now part of the Linac Coherent Light Source.
caption: Part of the SLAC beamline
exif: {}