AVS 63rd International Symposium & Exhibition
    Actinides and Rare Earths Focus Topic Thursday Sessions
       Session AC+AS+SA-ThM

Paper AC+AS+SA-ThM11
Soft X-ray Spectroscopy of Actinide Materials

Thursday, November 10, 2016, 11:20 am, Room 103C

Session: Chemistry and Physics of the Actinides and Rare Earths
Presenter: David Shuh, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Authors: D.K. Shuh, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
S.G. Minasian, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
C. Pemmaraju, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
A. Canning, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
D.G. Prendergast, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
T. Tyliszczak, Lawrence Berkeley Lab, University of California, Berkeley
A. Modin, Uppsala University, Sweden
S. Butorin, Uppsala University, Sweden
J. Nordgren, Uppsala University, Sweden
L. Werme, Uppsala University, Sweden
P. Oppeneer, Uppsala University, Sweden
Correspondent: Click to Email
Soft X-ray synchrotron radiation methodologies are being developed and employed at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to elucidate the electronic structure of actinide materials. Results from these investigations have begun to provide improved fundamental knowledge that can be used as a scientific basis for the enhanced design of special-purpose actinide materials and the overall understanding of actinide materials. The experimental developments at the ALS have centered on the use of the Molecular Environmental Science (MES) scanning transmission X-ray microscope (STXM) at Beamline 11.0.2 for near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (NEXAFS), and on X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) at several beamlines, focusing primarily on light atom constituents (C, N, O, F) for ligand K-edge XAS, and on metal-ion centers plus light-atom signals for XES. The spectromicroscopy capabilities of the STXM provide the means to investigate and determine the speciation in actinide materials and environmentally-relevant systems with spatial resolution that reaches to the true nanoscale. An absolutely critical and key enabling component for all of the soft X-ray investigations is the contribution of theory, that when combined with experiment, has firmly provided more detailed knowledge of electronic structure in actinide materials in terms of orbital composition and mixing, and oxidation state.