Local Structure Study of Lanthanide Elements by X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure Spectroscopy.

This paper describes a systematic study of the spectra and local structures of lanthanide (Ln) L-edge XANES. We found that Ln L1 and L3 -edge XANES spectra exhibit characteristic features correlated to their local symmetry through experimental and theoretical simulations. We also propose a simple local structure index criterion for a combination of XANES study and theoretical simulation. Possible solutions of intrinsic problems such as low resolution of characteristic features in the Ln L-edge XANES and site distributions are also discussed.