Obtaining 2D-Images of Local Atomic Environments at µm level through Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering (RIXS)

LEANI, J.J.; GRIBOFF, J.; ROBLEDO, J. I.; SÁNCHEZ, H. J.

Conferencia; The 17th International Conference on Total Reflection X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis and Related Methods (TXRF2017); 2017

Recently it was demonstrated that the chemical state of an element can be determined by studying the fine structure of the RIXS emission peak [1,2]. One of the most important characteristics of RIXS, using SDD systems with low-resolution in energy, is the possibility to combine it with all of the experimental techniques and geometries associated to X-Ray Fluorescence spectrometry.Hence, combinations of total reflection or depth profiling analysis using grazing incidence geometries and confocal setups have been reported [3-8]. The possibility of combining highresolution spatially resolved XRF with RIXS is, nowadays, quite open.Using these facts, we performed 2D-RIXS maps in different samples of interest: green bioindicators and structure-altered metallic samples. The measurements were carried out at the XRF beamline @ Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory. The samples were irradiated with photons having a fixed monochromatic energy below the K absorption edge of the elements of interest.After a simple data processing, the fine structure of the RIXS spectra show oscillation patterns that depend on the element?s chemical state. This outcome was verified by using a Principal Component Analysis (PCA).The analyzed samples, of high importance in environmental and material science, are relevant since they present a rich contrast of compounds of the same elements, being difficult to analyze using conventional time-consuming spectroscopic techniques. Using this new RIXS tool, we were able to produced fast and reliable maps/images showing the different chemical environments/compounds of the elements of interest, providing atomic environment information at micrometer level in a 2D regime.Examples of applications of this novel tool for chemical state determinations in 2D are presented and discussed.