NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN 1-2-KEV SPECTROSCOPY

We report herein the first of a series of K-edge XAFS spectra of some selected Mg, Al and Si model compounds in the 1-2 keV region using a newly developed YB66 monochromator. These elements have K-edges in the 1-2 keV region (Mg, 1303 eV; Al, 1559 eV and Si, 1839 eV), and have hithertofore often been regarded as relatively spectroscopic silent, both because of the difficulties associated with obtaining XAFS data, due to a lack of synchrotron radiation-stable monochromators, and because there are few other readily available spectroscopic probes of local structure for these elements. The present data clearly show that the K-edge spectra are sensitive probes of the chemical nature of these elements.