Commissioning experiences of hard x-ray beamline (B-12) on Indus-2 for high-resolution powder diffraction

We report initial commissioning of a part of the beamline (B-12) on high-resolution x-ray powder diffraction. The commissioning consists of synchrotron radiation based beam diagnostics; integrating and testing of beamline components, alignment of double crystal monochromator (DCM) and evacuation of the beamline. First, synchrotron radiation (SR) based beam diagnostics was done. We have measured parameters like beam height and angle of emission of electron bunch, SR beam divergence and number of photons per second in white as well as monochromatic SR beam. These parameters are desirable for proper and efficient installation of the beamlines. Although, some theoretical values of the parameters are available from the beam dynamics studies, we find that there are some quantitative variations in the values that are actually measured. (author)