XAFS for electride
Dear XAFSers, Recently there has been a growing interest in the electride phase of sp-bonded materials at extremely high pressures >Mbar (see attached paper for example). This phase is characterized by a matrix of positive ions and interstitial electron blobs. I am wondering how XAFS signal would change when these electron blobs are present. The x-ray diffraction probably won't detect them directly. But XAFS might be able to show their existence if they behave like additional scattering centers. Any thought or information would be appreciated. Yuan
Dear Yuan Probably not quite answering your question, but it would seem to me that you may have a chance to see XANES changes that could be indicative for the existence of these 'blobs'. Unfortunately the paper you attached does not contain any information about the unoccupied DOS, so it is difficult to make a strong statement. Certainly the local coordination geometry around the Al centres seems to vary. It would seem to me that there is not enough electron density concentrated in the 'blobs' to act as additional EXAFS scatterers. Perhaps they influence multiple scattering ... Might be worth running a FEFF analysis of scattering paths and amplitudes (but will FEFF predict those blobs alright?). Sven -- Dr Sven L.M. Schroeder (mailto:s.schroeder@manchester.ac.uk) Reader School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science (CEAS) The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom http://www.slmslab.info Also at: School of Chemistry, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom Tel +44 (161) 306 4502 Fax +44 (161) 306 8867 Office: Room C57 (Jackson's Mill) DISCLAIMER The views expressed within this message are those of the sender, not those of The University of Manchester or one of its units. While all emails and attachments are scanned for viruses before sending, we cannot accept any responsibility for viruses, so please scan all emails and attachments. This email is intended for the addressee only. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender and delete this email immediately. From: ifeffit-bounces@millenia.cars.aps.anl.gov [mailto:ifeffit-bounces@millenia.cars.aps.anl.gov] On Behalf Of Ping, Yuan Sent: 06 February 2012 19:57 To: XAFS Analysis using Ifeffit Subject: [Ifeffit] XAFS for electride Dear XAFSers, Recently there has been a growing interest in the electride phase of sp-bonded materials at extremely high pressures >Mbar (see attached paper for example). This phase is characterized by a matrix of positive ions and interstitial electron blobs. I am wondering how XAFS signal would change when these electron blobs are present. The x-ray diffraction probably won't detect them directly. But XAFS might be able to show their existence if they behave like additional scattering centers. Any thought or information would be appreciated. Yuan
Dear Yuan,
These electron blobs will act as repulsive potentials for photoelectrons.
To estimate (at least roughly) the value of the influence of these potentials on EXAFS signal you can approximate the electron density for the blob with some simple spherically symmetrical function, then find the potential created by this charge distribution and then calculate backscattering and forward scattering amplitudes according to any textbook on quantum mechanics or scattering theory. Then compare your results with scattering amplitudes calculated for some light atoms by e.g. FEFF
The backscattering amplitude tells you about single scattering contribution. Forward scattering amplitude tells you about possible contribution to chain scattering if the last presents in that atomic structure.
Victor Krayzman
----- Original Message -----
From: "Yuan Ping"
The obvious difficulty here is that the predicted phases requre TPa of pressure, which is way above what a DAC can provide. Also, for a DAC, you need an edge at a high-enough energy to get
through the diamonds or gasket. There exist ambient-pressure-stable electrides in which an alkali atom is inside a cryptand cage and its valence electron hangs around in blobs between the
cages. The XAS could certainly be done there at the Cs edge, but there's nothing to compare to and see if there's any effect of the electron blob, because there's no phase just like it
without the electron blob. I think you'd have a better shot at detecting the electron blob with crystallography. If these phases are accessible through shock techniques, then maybe, just
maybe, a source like LCLS or one of the European hard X-ray FELs could take single-shot powder patterns. It would be a hero experiment.
mam
----- Original Message -----
From: vikrai@comcast.net
To: XAFS Analysis using Ifeffit
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 1:57 PM
Subject: Re: [Ifeffit] XAFS for electride
Dear Yuan,
These electron blobs will act as repulsive potentials for photoelectrons.
To estimate (at least roughly) the value of the influence of these potentials on EXAFS signal you can approximate the electron density for the blob with some simple spherically symmetrical function, then find the potential created by this charge distribution and then calculate backscattering and forward scattering amplitudes according to any textbook on quantum mechanics or scattering theory. Then compare your results with scattering amplitudes calculated for some light atoms by e.g. FEFF
The backscattering amplitude tells you about single scattering contribution. Forward scattering amplitude tells you about possible contribution to chain scattering if the last presents in that atomic structure.
Victor Krayzman
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Yuan Ping"
participants (4)
-
Matthew Marcus
-
Ping, Yuan
-
Sven Schroeder
-
vikrai@comcast.net