Analytical technique for self-absorption structure of iron L-emission spectra obtained by soft X-ray emission spectrometer

Abstract The method deriving the L self-absorption spectrum from Lα,β emission spectra obtained at different accelerating voltages has been optimized for analyzing the chemical state of Fe in solid materials. Fe Lα,β emission spectra obtained are fitted using Pseudo-Voigt functions and normalized by the integrated intensity of each Fe Ll line, which is not affected by L2,3 absorption edge. The self-absorption spectrum is calculated by dividing the normalized intensity profile collected at low accelerating voltage by that collected at a higher accelerating voltage. The obtained profile is referred to as soft X-ray self-absorption structure (SX-SAS). This method is applied to six Fe-based materials (Fe metal, FeO, Fe3O4, Fe2O3, FeS and FeS2) to observe different chemical states of Fe in those materials. By comparing the self-absorption spectra of iron oxides, one can observe the L3 absorption peak structure shows a shift to the higher energy side as ferric (3+) Fe increases with respect to ferrous (+2) Fe. The intensity profiles of self-absorption spectra of metallic Fe and FeS2 shows shoulder structures between the L3 and L2 absorption peaks, which were not observed in spectra of Fe oxides. These results indicate that the SX-SAS technique is useful to examine X-ray absorption structure as a means to understand the chemical states of transition metal elements.