Local Structure and Dynamics of Functional Materials Studied by X-ray Absorption Fine Structure

Abstract

X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) is a powerful technique used to analyze a local electronic structure, local atomic structure, and structural dynamics. In this review, I present examples of XAFS that apply to the local structure and dynamics of functional materials: (1) structure phase transition in perovskite PbTiO3 and magnetic FeRhPd alloys; (2) nano-scaled fluctuations related to their magnetic properties in Ni–Mn alloys and Fe/Cr thin films; and (3) the Debye–Waller factors related to the chemical reactivity for catalysis in polyanions and ligand exchange reaction. This study shows that the local structure and dynamics are related to the characteristic function of the materials.

Tracking the Oxygen Dynamics of Solid–Liquid Electrochemical Interfaces by Correlative In Situ Synchrotron Spectroscopies

“…In the 1970s, the advent of the first SR sources with bending magnets successfully triggered the rapid development of SR-XAFS as a useful tool for quantitative structure detection. − As shown in Figure a, when an incident X-ray photon with suitable energy is absorbed by central atom A during SR-XAFS measurements, an outgoing core-level photoelectron wave will be promptly produced. This outgoing photoelectron wave can be scattered by the surrounding atoms in the first and second shells, e.g., the B and C atoms, and then return to the initial central atom A.…”

In Situ Study of Zinc Peroxide Decomposition to Zinc Oxide by X‐Ray Absorption Spectroscopy and Reverse Monte Carlo Simulations

“…[ 1 −6] Good sensitivity of the method to the short‐range order around a selected element makes it useful to track the phase transitions in complex compounds. [ 7–12 ] Technically, this means that, first, it is necessary to determine the type of phase(s) and then extract the structural information using a proper method of analysis. [6, 13 ] Phase identification can be performed by the comparison of the experimental data with a set of preselected reference compounds using principal component analysis (PCA) and/or linear combination analysis (LCA) procedure.…”