P -] P-LIKE TRANSITIONS AT THE SILICON L2,3-EDGES OF SILICATES

We provide evidence for the existence of p --> p-like transitions at the silicon L2,3-edges of common silicates. This arises due to the local, tetrahedral potential at the silicon site imposed by the nearest neighbour atoms leading to a loss of inversion symmetry. In order to successfully describe the resultant electron energy loss near-edge structure (ELNES) in such environments, we show that the consideration of such effects is extremely important.