By standard normalization, I meant subtraction of a linear pre-edge and multiplication by a constant. If this treatment is applied to the XAS spectra before subtraction, one does not obtain an XMCD spectrum that goes to zero in the post edge region for the data I described. As you noted, that is what would be expected given the p-XAS and n-XAS have different slopes in the post-edge region.

On the other hand, standard normalization + flattening does result in pre and post-edge regions that go to zero, again as one might expect. So perhaps, the background modeled by standard normalization + flattening is an accurate representation of the real background in some cases and can be used in quantitative analysis. Is there reason to believe that cannot be the case?

Thanks,
George




On Wed, May 15, 2013 at 3:04 PM, Matthew Marcus <mamarcus@lbl.gov> wrote:
OK, I guess I don't know what 'standard normalization' is.  It looks from the quotient that you'll need some sort of curved post-edge.
I guess the division didn't work because the electron energy distribution is different pre- and post-edge, so the magnetic effects are
different and vary across the edge.  Thus, the shapes of the MCD peaks will be at least a little corrupted even if the pre- and post-edge
spectra are taken into account.  I don't know what to do about this.  Did you try asking Elke?
        mam


On 5/15/2013 11:52 AM, George Sterbinsky wrote:
Hi Matthew,



On Wed, May 15, 2013 at 1:20 PM, Matthew Marcus <mamarcus@lbl.gov <mailto:mamarcus@lbl.gov>> wrote:

    You say that the flipping difference (p - n) is 0 in pre-edge and far post-edge regions, which is as it should be, but then say that the
    slopes of p- and n- post-edges, considered separately, are different.  I must be misunderstanding because those two statements would seem to be
    inconsistent.



Sorry, I think my wording wasn't particularly clear here. What I should have said is:

"The goal then is to subtract the /normalized/ XAS measured in a positive field (p-XAS) from /normalized/ XAS measured in a negative field (n-XAS) and get something (the XMCD) that is zero in the pre-edge and post-edge regions. /However, standard normalization does not give this result/"


Italics indicate new text.

    I wonder if the sensitivity of the TEY changes with magnetic field because of the effect of the field on the trajectories of
    the outgoing electrons, which would explain the differing curves.


I would agree, I think the effect of the magnetic field on the electrons is the likely source of the differences in background.

    A possibility - if you divide the p-XAS by n-XAS, do you get something
    which is a smooth curve everywhere but where MCD is expected?  Does that curve match in pre- and far post-edge regions?


No, after division of the p-XAS by the n-XAS (before any normalization), both the pre and post-edge regions are smooth, but one would need a step-like function to connect them. I've attached a plot showing the result of division.


    If that miracle occurs,
    then perhaps you could fit that to a polynomial, except in the MCD region, then divide the p-XAS by that polynomial, to remove the effect of
    the differing sensitivities.

    There are people here at ALS, such as Elke Arenholz <earenholz@lbl.gov <mailto:earenholz@lbl.gov>>, who do this sort of spectroscopy.  I suggest asking her.

             mam


Thanks for the suggestion and your reply.

George








        On 5/15/2013 9:58 AM, George Sterbinsky wrote:

            The question of whether it is appropriate to use flattened data for quantitative analysis is something I've been thinking about a lot recently. In my specific case, I am analyzing XMCD data at the Co L-edge. To obtain the XMCD, I measure XAS with total electron yield detection using a ~70% left or right circularly polarized beam and flip the magnetic field on the sample at every data point. The goal then, is to subtract the XAS measured in a positive field (p-XAS) from XAS measured in a negative field (n-XAS) and get something (the XMCD) that is zero in the pre-edge and post-edge regions. I often find that after removal of a linear pre-edge, the spectra still have a linearly increasing post edge (with EXAFS oscillations superimposed on it), and the slope of the n-XAS and p-XAS post-edge lines are different. In this case simply multiplying the n-XAS and p-XAS by constants will never give an XMCD spectrum that is zero in the post edge region. There is then some
            component of the

            XAS background that is not accounted for by linear subtraction and multiplication by a constant. It seems to me that flattening could be a good way to account for such a background. So is flattening a reasonable thing to do in a case such as this, or is there a better way to account for such a background?

            Thanks,
            George


            On Wed, May 15, 2013 at 11:41 AM, Matthew Marcus <mamarcus@lbl.gov <mailto:mamarcus@lbl.gov> <mailto:mamarcus@lbl.gov <mailto:mamarcus@lbl.gov>>> wrote:

                 The way I commonly do pre-edge is to fit with some form plus a power-law singularity representing the initial rise of the edge, then
                 subtract out that "some form".  Now, that form can be either linear, linear+E^(-2.7) (for transmission), or linear+ another power-law
                 singularity centered at the center passband energy of the fluorescence detector.  That latter is for fluorescence data which is affected by
                 the tail of the elastic/Compton peak from the incident energy.  Whichever form is taken gets subtraccted from the whole data range, resulting
                 in data which is pre-edge-subtracted but not yet post-edge normalized.  The path then splits; for EXAFS, the usual conversion to k-space, spline
                 fitting in the post-edge, subtraction and division is done, all interactively.  Tensioned spline is also available due to request of a prominent user.
                 For XANES, the post-edge is fit as previously described.  Thus, there's no distinction made between data above and below E0 in XANES, whereas
                 there is such a distinction in EXAFS.
                          mam


                 On 5/15/2013 8:25 AM, Matt Newville wrote:

                     Hi Matthew,

                     On Wed, May 15, 2013 at 9:57 AM, Matthew Marcus <mamarcus@lbl.gov <mailto:mamarcus@lbl.gov> <mailto:mamarcus@lbl.gov <mailto:mamarcus@lbl.gov>>> wrote:

                         What I typically do for XANES is divide mu-mu_pre_edge_line by a linear
                         function which goes through the post-edge oscillations.
                         This division goes over the whole data range, including pre-edge.  If the
                         data has obvious curvature in the post-edge, I'll use a higher-order
                         polynomial.  For transmission data, what sometimes linearizes the background
                         is to change the abscissa to 1/E^2.7 (the rule-of-thumb absorption
                         shape) and change it back afterward.  All this is, of course, highly
                         subjective and one of the reasons for taking extended XANES data (300eV,
                         for instance).  For short-range XANES, there isn't enough info to do more
                         than divide by a constant.  Once this is done, my LCF programs allow
                         a slope adjustment as a free parameter, thus muNorm(E) =
                         (1+a*(E-E0))*Sum_on_ref{x[ref]____*muNorm[ref](E)}.  A sign that this degree of


                         freedom
                         may be being abused is if the sum of the x[ref] is far from 1 or if
                         a*(Emax-E0) is large.  Don't get me started on overabsorption :-)
                                   mam


                     Thanks -- I should have said that pre_edge() can now do a
                     victoreen-ish fit, regressing a line to mu*E^nvict (nvict can be any
                     real value).

                     Still, it seems that the current flattening is somewhere between
                     "better" and "worse", which is unsettling...  Applying the
                     "flattening" polynomial to the pre-edge range definitely seems to give
                     poor results, but maybe some energy-dependent compromise is possible.

                     And, of course, over-absorption is next on the list!

                     --Matt
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