[en] Upcoming hard X-ray synchrotron radiation (SR) source of India, Indus-2 is a booster cum storage ring machine for 2.5 GeV electrons. The high energy electron beam interacts with the residual gas in vacuum chambers of the storage ring generating harmful ionizing radiation like gas Bremsstrahlung, which further leads to generation of secondary Bremsstrahlung and neutrons. A 1.5m thick concrete shielding wall separates the storage ring from the experimental hall. For doing various experiments using SR emitted from Indus-2, several beamlines would be installed which would be taken out to the experiment hall through appropriate holes in the shielding wall. The ionizing radiation would also propagate along the beamline and to safeguard the personnel working on the beamline from exposure to harmful ionizing radiation, a Bremsstrahlung Beam Shutter (BS) is an essential part of the frontend of the beamline. Design of the Beam Shutter in respect of shutter material, shutter thickness, dose rate to the downstream of the BS, etc. has been worked out by studying the electromagnetic shower generated by the 2.5 GeV Bremsstrahlung using extensive Monte Carlo simulations. Electron Gamma Shower (EGS4) code has been used for these simulations. The results of this study are presented

[en] The 2.5 GeV electron storage ring Indus-2 is a hard X-ray Synchrotron Radiation (SR) Source. Nearly 27 beamlines will be installed on Indus-2 and they will cater to different experiments and applications. Most of the beamlines will be in Ultra High Vacuum (UHV) the only exception being hard X-rays beamlines. However the front ends of all the beamlines will be in UHV. Practicing UHV requires efforts and patience. Evacuating any chamber, volume gases can be removed easily. However, outgassing phenomena like desorption, diffusion and permeation restricts the system to attain UHV. All processes except the volume gas removal are temperature dependent. At ambient temperature, gas pressure decreases so slowly that outgassing limit (i.e. 10^-10 1/s/cm²) can hardly be achieved on a practical time scale. Also there are three orders of magnitude difference in outgassing between baked and unbaked systems. Depending on the vacuum chamber and the components inside it, the thermal outgassing (baking) of system is required and can be done at various temperatures between 150 degC to 450 deg C. For whole baking cycle, constant monitoring and controlling of the systems is required which takes tens of hours. This paper describes the automation for such baking system, which will be used for SR beamlines

[en] Optical design of a soft and deep x-ray lithography beamline to be installed on Indus-2 is reported. The beamline consisting of a plane and toroidal mirror will provide wide lithographic window (1 keV-18 keV). It can also be operated in no optics mode. Spot diagrams of beam image at mask-wafer stage, effect of mirror movements, power density and spatial resolution are analyzed using ray-tracing. (author)

[en] Vertical position and angular divergence monitoring of synchrotron radiation are the two key parameters for efficient performance of the beam lines. For a high brightness third generation synchrotron radiation source like Indus-2, photon beam position monitoring is required. A two-blade synchrotron radiation beam position monitor prototype has been made and tested on Indus-1 CAT-TGM beamline. Testing and calibration of this photon beam position monitor is reported in this paper. (author)

[en] Synchrotron radiation (SR) source Indus-2, under construction in our Centre, is a 2.5 GeV electron storage ring that would emit synchrotron radiation over a broad spectral range covering the hard and soft X-ray region of the electromagnetic radiation. X-ray radiation from less than 1 keV to several tens of keVs would be available with very high intensity. Indus-2 has provision to install up to 27 synchrotron photon beamlines so that diverse type of experiments can be done simultaneously. Typically these beamlines are 30 to 40 metres long. The first part of such beamlines, which is immediately outside the storage ring but inside the concrete shielding tunnel, is designated as the Front End (FE). The FE therefore acts as an interface between the X-ray source on the storage ring and the downstream optical components in the beamline hall. The front end has many critical functions to perform, the main functions being: storage ring vacuum protection, absorption of radiation when the beamline is shutdown and proper synchrotron-beam excitation at radiation, other components like photon beam position monitors etc. can also be installed in the FE. A front end essentially consists of a set of Ultra High Vacuum (UHV) components with associated controls and interlocks

[en] At Indus-2 Soft and Deep X-ray Lithography beamline (BL-07) is functional and is capable of developing various high aspect ratio and high resolution structures at micro and nano scale. These micro and nano structures can be made to work as a mechanism, sensor, actuator and transducer for varieties of applications and serve as basic building blocks for the development of X-ray and IR optics, LASERs, lab-on-a-chip, micromanipulators and nanotechnology. To achieve these goals we have started developing high aspect ratio comb-drives, electrostatic micromotors, micro fluidic channels, X-ray optics and novel transducers for RF applications by Deep X-ray Lithography (DXRL). Comb-drive is one of most studied electrostatic device in MEMS (Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems). It can be used as a sensor, actuator, resonator, energy harvester and filter. Analysis and simulation shows that the comb actuator of aspect ratio 16 (air gap 50 μm) will produce nearly 1.25 μm displacement when DC voltage of 100 V is applied. For fabrication, first time in India, Polyimide X-ray mask is realized and exposure and development is done at BL-7 at RRCAT. The displacement increases as gap between comb finger decreases. Further refinement is in progress to get higher output from high aspect ratio (∼ 80) comb actuators (i.e. 1 μm at 5V). The other important design parameters like resonance frequency, capacitance will also be discussed. (author)

[en] High performance of synchrotron radiation (SR) beamlines depends on the beam stability of the SR source. Information on beam position and emission angle of synchrotron radiation is important for both synchrotron beam user and machine operator. A staggered pair X-ray beam position monitor (XBPM) is designed, developed and installed on Indus-2 frontend of bending magnet beamline. The paper presents monitor design aspects and its performance testing with SR source. Performance and beam position values of XBPM are crosschecked by moving the XBPM assembly in the stationary path of the SR beam and by giving calculated bump to electron beam. (author)

[en] A staggered pair metal blade X-ray beam position monitor (XBPM) is designed, fabricated and commissioned on Indus-2 bending magnet front end. Calibration of XBPM is done by scanning the metal blades in the path of synchrotron radiation and by giving controlled electron asymmetric bump. The vertical beam position stability of the source measured during various injections and storages are reported.

[en] X-ray lenses are fabricated in polymethyl methacrylate using deep X-ray lithography beamline of Indus-2. The focussing performance of these lenses is evaluated using Indus-2 and Diamond Light Source Ltd. The process steps for the fabrication of X-ray lenses and microfocussing at 10 keV at moderate and low emittance sources are compared. (author)

[en] Synthesis of metal nanoparticles using high energy radiation like gamma and electron beam is well established techniques as reported in recent literature. Synchrotron radiation X-rays as a new ionizing radiation source has not been studied much for fabrication of metal nanoparticles. In this work, we introduce a synchrotron X-ray induced silver metal nanoparticle preparation method from silver nitrate (AgNO₃) precursor salt. All the chemicals used in the present study were of highest purity and were used as received. Aqueous solutions were prepared using nanopure water (Resistivity 18Mω.cm). X-ray irradiations were carried out using BL- 7, INDUS-II synchrotron facility at RRCAT, Indore. Absorption spectra were recorded on a Thermoelectron recording spectrophotometer. Aqueous solution of AgNO₃, polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP, Mw 40kDa) and 2-propanol when exposed to ionizing X-ray radiation, Ag⁺ is reduced to Ag⁰ by reactive radical produced from water radiolysis. Ag⁰ coalesce to give metal nanoparticles in presence of stabilizing agent PVP. The silver nanoparticles formed are yellow in color and has absorption peak at 409 nm with small FWHM. This indicates smaller size and narrower size distribution of Ag nanoparticles are produced by this technique. Further work in this context is in progress. (author)