Spring8

SPring-8, short for Super Photon Ring-8 GeV, is a major synchrotron radiation facility located in Harima Science Garden City, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. It is one of the world’s most productive sources of bright X-rays for research across physics, chemistry, biology, and materials science.

The facility centers on an 8 GeV electron storage ring that produces X-ray beams via insertion devices, enabling high-brightness, tunable radiation. Dozens of beamlines provide capabilities for powder and single-crystal diffraction, small-angle and wide-angle scattering, spectroscopy, imaging, and tomography.

SPring-8 was constructed by the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI) and began user operation in 1997. It has undergone periodic upgrades to boost brightness, energy range, and beamline performance.

The SPring-8 complex is located on the same site as SACLA, the X-ray free-electron laser, which complements SPring-8 by delivering ultrafast, high-intensity pulses.

Access to SPring-8 is via a competitive proposal process open to researchers from universities, industry, and international institutions. The facility allocates beam time through peer-reviewed programs and provides support services for experiments, data acquisition, and analysis.