XAFS Journal Club

Core-to-core X-ray emission spectroscopy (CTC-XES) has not only provided key insights into atomic physics but is extremely well positioned to serve as a major analytical technique for several materials systems in the coming decades. Moreover, CTC-XES frequently serves as an enabling phenomenon for more exotic varieties of synchrotron-based XAFS. I will cover several applications of […]

Soft X-ray scanning transmission microscopy (STXM) is a powerful tool for nanoscale materials analysis, with significant advantages over analytical electron microscopies for studies of radiation sensitive materials. Chemical species identified by near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectra can be mapped quantitatively in 2D and in 3D. STXM instrumentation and methods will be described, […]

The transition-edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeter uses the sharply temperature-dependent resistance of the superconducting transition to measure the energy of X-ray and gamma ray photons. A single TES is a broadband, energy-dispersive area detector capable of eV-scale energy resolution with good quantum efficiency. With an array of hundreds or thousands of sensors, a TES-based spectrometer can […]

EXAFS spectra are often modeled using a small number of virtual coordination shells which can vary in coordination number, bond length, and disorder. While this bottom-up approach is generally successful for single-phase samples, it becomes intractable when the element of interest occupies multiple complex coordination states. Such cases may require a top-down approach, in which […]