India’s first synchrotron source, a 450 MeV electron storage ring, Indus-1 has become operational at Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore in early 1999. The first two beamlines have become operational in November 2000. Since than two more beamlines have been commissioned. Research activities’ using Indus-1 synchrotron facility has started taking shape. Indus-1 is a national facility available to all research institutes and Universities in India. In addition to active utilization by in-house users, users from various universities and national laboratories are using Indus-1. Inter University Consortium for DAE Facilities has built a photo-electron spectroscopy beamline for surface science studies. CAT built vacuum ultra violet reflectivity beamline is being used to study optical response of materials in this wavelength region. Research activities on both these beamlines have sprung up. The research activities have been reported in various national/ international forums. Angle resolved Bhabha Atomic Research Centere, Mumbai, has recently commissioned photoelectron spectroscopy and photo-physics beamlines.

It has been a great pleasure to edit and compile the Indus-1 Activity Report:. The first section of the report, presents the present status of the Indus-1 machine, radiation shielding and radiation safety aspects have been included. The second section gives the present status of the various beamlines on Indus-1 followed by a section that covers the developmental activities undertaken by various groups in the process of setting up of the beamlines. With these two sections the users will be able to get a picture of the various facilities available on each beamline. This would encourage a large number of users to come forward to use to this national synchrotron facility. The fourth section includes the various research works done using Indus-1 synchrotron source. The research activities in vacuum ultra violet/ soft x-ray region of the electromagnetic spectrum have already started growing. Published research papers have also been included. Report on recent schools organized on synchrotron radiation and applications and the publications list connected with Indus-1 forms the last part of this report.

For the effective use of a national facility like Indus-1, the number and spectrum of researchers using this facility has to increase significantly. This can happen when the vast scientific community in India, becomes aware of the potential of the Indus synchrotron facility. Indus-1 Activity Report is a step in that direction. We are sure that more number of scientific users would come forward to use this synchrotron facility. For any queries concerning the radiation source you can contact Shri. Gurnam Singh (gurnam@rrcat.gov.in) and for beamlines and user activities Dr. R. V. Nandedkar (nrv@rrcat.gov.in).