Konstantin Sukharnikov Scientific instrumentation

A hobby. An independent overview compiled from public sources by a science and space enthusiast. I am not involved in these missions or facilities; my own work is detector electronics at European XFEL. My projects →

Facility · X-ray lasers

SACLA (SPring-8 Angstrom Compact free electron LAser)

Compact hard X-ray free-electron laser on a C-band linac (5.7 GHz), three beamlines

Status
Operating
Location
Harima (Hyogo Prefecture), Japan
Operator
RIKEN SPring-8 Center, JASRI
Next
≈ Oct 2027 neighbouring SPring-8 shuts down for about a year (SPring-8-II); SACLA keeps running

Summary

The world's second hard X-ray free-electron laser after LCLS: first lasing on 7 June 2011 (RIKEN history). It is compact thanks to its 5.7 GHz C-band linear accelerator (RIKEN). Construction started in April 2006 and general user operation in March 2012; it has three beamlines (SPring-8 on the same site has 57) (MEXT, 29 September 2026).

Now as of 9 Nov 2026

In user operation. The main event on the site is the SPring-8 upgrade (see SPring-8): according to MEXT, SPring-8 will stop for about a year from the second half of Japanese fiscal year 2027, and general use of SPring-8-II will begin during fiscal year 2029. The government's "Integrated Innovation Strategy 2026" asks for enough operating time at SPring-8/SACLA and J-PARC during that period so that research can continue (MEXT, 29 September 2026).

Key dates

  1. Apr 2006Construction beginsdone
  2. 7 Jun 2011First lasingdone
  3. Mar 2012General user operation beginsdone
  4. ≈ Oct 2027SPring-8 stops for about a year (SACLA keeps running)mext plan

Timeline

  1. 29 Sep 2026MEXT: SPring-8-II schedule and measures for the shutdown period, including for SACLA — MEXT