The Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SRL) advances novel materials research by developing soft X-ray spectroscopic techniques using the high-brilliance synchrotron radiation source and soft X-ray lasers at three sites, Harima, Sendai, and Kashiwa. 

In the Harima office, the world's highest performance fast polarization-switching soft X-ray undulator beamline, developed and operated until 2022, was transferred to RIKEN, and R&D of a soft X-ray spectroscopic imaging station is conducted in collaboration with RIKEN SPring-8. It has restarted the joint-research program from late 2025. At the X-ray free electron laser facility, SACLA, nonlinear X-ray spectroscopy was developed and the updates have been carried out. 

The Sendai office opened from November 2022, and ambient pressure photoemission spectroscopy, three-dimensional nanoESCA, and high-resolution soft X-ray emission spectroscopy stations have been transported to the new 3GeV X-ray source facility NanoTerasu, which was built at the new Aobayama campus of Tohoku University. These experimental stations have been upgraded and have been in operation since FY2024. 

 At Kashiwa campus, there are two end-stations of photoemission spectroscopy in the E-building that have been available for the joint-research program. One station is dedicated to the spin-, time-, and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and the other is to the two-dimensional angle- and time-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. The light source is a laser that is based on the high-harmonic generation and it is operated in collaboration with the LASOR laser group.