NEAR-EDGE SODIUM AND FLUORINE K-SHELL PHOTOABSORPTION OF ALKALI-HALIDES

The x-ray-absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectra of single-cry stal alkali halide salts have been measured at low temperature (T almo st-equal-to 80 K) with high resolution in energy. By employing the ele ctron partial-yield detection technique, spectra of NaF, NaCl, and NaB r were obtained near the sodium K edge and spectra of LiF, NaF, and KF were obtained near the fluorine K edge. All spectra showed sharp abso rption features at the absorption threshold and broader features exten ding 50-80 eV above threshold. Some narrow features close to threshold are attributed to core-level excitons. Contributions from atomic mult iple-electron excitations, estimated by a comparison to the K-edge pho toabsorption spectrum of Ne in the gas phase, are found to be very sma ll. Thus, the intense broader peaks observed further above threshold a rise from single-electron scattering resonances. These highly structur ed spectra of well-characterized ordered crystals provide a set of sta ndard data which is used to test the multiple-scattering x-ray-absorpt ion code FEFF V. For some spectra, at photon energies more than almost -equal-to 10 eV above threshold, the calculations achieve very good ag reement with experiment. The dependence of the calculation on cluster size, order of scattering, and choice of self-energy is demonstrated.