High energy resolution X-ray spectroscopy of actinide nanomaterials

Actinide nanomaterial research with cutting-edge effort in synthesis, processing and atomic-scale characterization is a fascinating and a rapidly progressing field of science. Experts around the world develop highly controllable synthesis approaches, use more sensitive characterization tools and finally improve models and theories to explain the experimental observations.
This contribution will provide an overview of advanced X-ray spectroscopic techniques that take advantage of the resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) in the hard and tender X-ray range and have become available for studying the electronic structure of actinides at the syn-chrotron facilities1–6. We will show latest results of actinide (hydroxo-) oxide nanoparticles stud-ies obtained by high-energy-resolution fluorescence detection (HERFD) X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) and RIXS spectroscopies (Fig.1.) at the U, Th and Pu L3 and M4,5 edges. The experiments were performed at the Rossendorf Beamline (ROBL) at the ESRF, where we recently installed a novel X-ray emission spectrometer7 with ground-breaking detection limit. We will show how the detail information about local and electronic structure of actinide nanomaterials can be obtained, including information on the electron-electron interactions, hybridization between molecular orbitals, the nature of their chemical bonding, and the occupation and the degree of the f-electron localization. The experimental spectral features have been analyzed using a number of theoretical methods. It might be of interest for fundamental research in chemistry and physics of actinide systems as well as for the applied science