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Updated: Mar 30, 2026

Elemental-sensitive Detection of the Chemistry in Batteries through Soft X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy and Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering
Published on: April 17, 2018
Feasibility of Valence-to-Core X-ray Emission Spectroscopy for Tracking Transient Species
Anne Marie March1, Tadesse A Assefa2, Christian Bressler3
1X-ray Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory , Argonne, Illinois 60439, United States.
Abstract:
X-ray spectroscopies, when combined in laser-pump, X-ray-probe measurement schemes, can be powerful tools for tracking the electronic and geometric structural changes that occur during the course of a photoinitiated chemical reaction. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) is considered an established technique for such measurements, and X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) of the strongest core-to-core emission lines (Kα and Kβ) is now being utilized. Flux demanding valence-to-core XES promises to be an important addition to the time-resolved spectroscopic toolkit. In this paper we present measurements and density functional theory calculations on laser-excited, solution-phase ferrocyanide that demonstrate the feasibility of valence-to-core XES for time-resolved experiments. We discuss technical improvements that will make valence-to-core XES a practical pump-probe technique.
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