Rigaku Corporation is an international manufacturer and distributor of scientific, analytical and industrial instrumentation specializing in

X-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...

related technologies, including

X-ray crystallography X-ray crystallography is the experimental science determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline structure causes a beam of incident X-rays to diffract into many specific directions. By measuring the angles ...

, X-ray diffraction (XRD),

X-ray reflectivity X-ray reflectivity (sometimes known as X-ray specular reflectivity, X-ray reflectometry, or XRR) is a surface-sensitive analytical technique used in chemistry, physics, and materials science to characterize surfaces, thin films and multilayers.J. ...

X-ray fluorescence X-ray fluorescence (XRF) is the emission of characteristic "secondary" (or fluorescent) X-rays from a material that has been excited by being bombarded with high-energy X-rays or gamma rays. The phenomenon is widely used for elemental analysis ...

(XRF),

automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...

cryogenics In physics, cryogenics is the production and behaviour of materials at very low temperatures. The 13th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration (held in Washington DC in 1971) endorsed a universal definition of “cryogenics” and “cr ...

and

X-ray optics X-ray optics is the branch of optics that manipulates X-rays instead of visible light. It deals with focusing and other ways of manipulating the X-ray beams for research techniques such as X-ray crystallography, X-ray fluorescence, small-angle X-ray ...

Locations

Rigaku is headquartered in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, Japan, with additional production, research and laboratory facilities located in both Japan and the United States. Subsidiaries in North America include Rigaku Americas Corporation (

The Woodlands, Texas The Woodlands is a special-purpose district and census-designated place (CDP) in the U.S. state of Texas in the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan statistical area. The Woodlands is primarily located in Montgomery County, with p ...

, United States), Applied Rigaku Technologies (Austin, Texas, USA) and Rigaku Innovative Technologies ( Auburn Hills, Michigan, United States). European branches are located in Neu-Isenburg near Frankfurt, Germany,

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

, Czech Republic and Poland rocław

Products

Rigaku manufactures and supplies high precision scientific instrumentation to academia, industry and trade. These include X-ray diffractometers, single crystal diffractometers, X-ray Imagers, X-ray fluorescence spectrometers (both Energy Dispersive and Wavelength Dispersive varieties), thermal analysis equipment, Handheld Raman and LIBS analyzers and X-ray and EUV optics, X-ray sources and X-ray detectors. XtaLAB Synergy-ED by Rigaku

In 2021 a successful collaboration with instrument manufacturer

JEOL is a major developer and manufacturer of electron microscopes and other scientific instruments, industrial equipment and medical equipment. Its headquarters are in Tokyo, Japan, with 25 domestic and foreign subsidiaries and associated companies ...

, saw the launch of a instrument dedicated to

electron crystallography Electron crystallography is a method to determine the arrangement of atoms in solids using a transmission electron microscope (TEM). Comparison with X-ray crystallography It can complement X-ray crystallography for studies of very small crystals ...

. Th
XtaLAB Synergy-ED
is the result of an innovative collaboration to combine Rigaku's core technologies: a high-speed, high-sensitivity photon-counting detector (HyPix-ED) and state-of-the-art instrument control and single crystal analysis software platform (CrysAlis^Pro for ED), and JEOL’s long-term expertise and market leadership in designing and producing transmission electron microscopes. The key feature of this product is that it provides researchers an integrated platform enabling easy access to electron crystallography. Due to the seamless interface using the software package called CrysAlis^Pro, well known in the field of X-ray Crystallography, th
XtaLAB Synergy-ED
is a system any X-ray crystallographer will find intuitive to operate without having to become an expert in electron microscopy.

History

1951 Rigaku was founded by Dr. Yoshihiro Shimura. 1952 The core innovation of the company was the introduction of the world's first commercially available rotating anode

generator. 1954 Rigaku introduced the first automatic-recording X-ray diffractometer. 1976 Rigaku developed the first parallel-beam type X-ray diffractometer for stress analysis, as well as the first

spectrometers capable of

carbon Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent—its atom making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds. It belongs to group 14 of the periodic table. Carbon mak ...

analysis (1976) and boron analysis (1981). 2021 Rigaku announced that that global investment firm The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) and Mr. Hikaru Shimura, President and CEO of Rigaku has agreed to jointly acquire all outstanding shares of Rigaku, through a holding company to be newly set up by Carlyle and Mr. Shimura. Carlyle is expected to own approximately 80%, and Mr. Shimura approximately 20% of the new entity. Today, the company is led by Mr. Toshiyuki Ikeda (

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

& CEO).

References

External links

Rigaku home page
(English)
Rigaku home page
(

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

)
Rigaku Journal: An International Journal of X-ray Characterization
1951 establishments in Japan Manufacturing companies established in 1951 X-ray equipment manufacturers {{Japan-company-stub