You can't just go to the store and buy an x-ray laser. Because x-ray photons pack so much more energy than visible-light photons, forming them into a pure beam requires a very different procedure. The world's most powerful x-ray laser, known as the Linac Coherent Light Source, sits at the end of a linear particle accelerator and converts the particle beam into an x-ray beam. The outgoing beam can create exotic states of matter as well as make images of atoms and molecules.

Video Courtesy of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory