Construction on the SPring-8 synchrotron radiation facility within the Harima Science Garden City began in 1991 and took six years to complete. Since then, RIKEN has worked to add related installations and new beamlines in keeping with its mandate from the Japanese government to enhance and promote the shared use of this large-scale research facility with other research institutions, universities, and private businesses. Currently, JASRI, the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute, is charged with the operation and management of SPring-8.

    RIKEN’s Harima Institute was established in October 1997, at the same time that SPring-8 was made available for public use, to manage the campus where SPring-8 is located and to provide general support for synchrotron radiation research using SPring-8. In October 2005, the RIKEN SPring-8 Center was created within the Harima Institute to reinforce RIKEN’s own synchrotron radiation research. This Center is now working to create new light sources, pioneer new uses of these light sources, and to thereby advance research and development in synchrotron radiation and related fields.

    Currently, RIKEN and JASRI are cooperating to build the XFEL (X-ray Free Electron Laser) facility for the creation of X-ray laser beams, heretofore unknown to humankind. Scheduled for completion in 2010, the XFEL, like SPring-8, will be made available for shared public use.

    With the addition of the XFEL installation, we expect the SPring-8 facility to become a world-class center of excellence for photon science.