Hi Matthew,
On Sun, Apr 3, 2016 at 8:13 PM, Matthew Marcus
<Rant> It shouldn't be called 'self-absorption'. That's a misnomer, which seems to have come from a 1992 paper (Troger, et. al."Full correction of the self-absorption in soft-fluorescence extended x-ray-absorption fine structure", PRB 46,3283 (1992). The effect was described and analyzed in a 1982 paper, which called it an "attenuation factor": Goulon, et. al. "On experimental attenuation factors of the amplitude of the EXAFS oscillations in absorption, reflectivity and luminescence measurements", J. Physique 43, 539 (1982). </Rant> mam
Thanks!! I completely agree, though I wasn't aware of the historical precedence for the mistake. Using "over-absorption" is a far better term. In X-ray fluorescence, "self-absorption" actually means the attenuation of fluorescence generated within a sample as it travels out of the sample. For over-absorption in XAFS, the issue is measuring absorption in fluorescence mode when the concentration of the absorbing element is not infinitesimal or when the sample thickness is not infinitesimal. --Matt