Articles you may be interested in Ca K-edge X-ray absorption fine structure in BaTiO3-CaTiO3 solid solutions J. Appl. Phys. 113, 044106 (2013); 10.1063/1.4784226 In situ near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy investigation of the thermal defunctionalization of graphene oxide J. The electronic structure and optical properties of a series of iso-electronic and iso-structural CdS x Se 1Àx solid solution nanostructures have been investigated using X-ray absorption near edge structure, extended X-ray absorption fine structure, and X-ray excited optical luminescence at various absorption edges of Cd, S, and Se. It is found that the system exhibits compositions, with variable local structure in-between that of CdS and CdSe accompanied by tunable optical band gap between that of CdS and CdSe. Theoretical calculation using density functional theory has been carried out to elucidate the observations. It is also found that luminescence induced by X-ray excitation shows new optical channels not observed previously with laser excitation. The implications of these observations are discussed. V C 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.