Towards the Quantification of 5f Delocalization
James Tobin, S. Nowak, S.-W. Yu, Roberto Alonso‐Mori, Thomas Kröll, Dennis Nordlund, T.-C. Weng, Dimosthenis Sokaras
Abstract
By using M4,5 X-ray Emission Spectroscopy (XES) in the tender X-ray regime, it is possible to quantify 5f delocalization in the actinides. Previous analyses, utilizing the Branching Ratio (BR) in the N4,5 X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS), could not discriminate between the cases of localized n = 2 and delocalized n = 3, in uranium materials, where n is the number of 5f electrons on the U entity. Here, it is shown that, by employing the ubiquitous 6p → 3d XES as a point of normalization, the localized n = 2 and delocalized n = 3 cases can be easily distinguished and quantified.
Topics & Concepts
Delocalized electronX-ray absorption spectroscopyActinideSpectroscopyElectronNormalization (sociology)UraniumElectron delocalizationAbsorption spectroscopyBranching fractionAtomic physicsMaterials scienceChemistryPhysicsNuclear physicsOpticsQuantum mechanicsAnthropologySociologyRare-earth and actinide compoundsNuclear Materials and PropertiesRadioactive element chemistry and processing