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Smith, A. D.; Schofield, P. F.; Scholl, A.; Pattrick, R.A.D. and Bridges, J.C.
(2003).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1051/jp4:20030102
Abstract
The crystal chemistry and textural relationships of minerals hold a vast amount of information relating to the formation, history and stability of natural materials. The application of soft X-ray spectroscopy to mineralogical material has revealed that 2p (L2,3 spectra provide a sensitive fingerprint of the electronic states of 3d metals. In bulk powdered samples much of the textural and microstructural information is lost, but the area-selectivity capability of X-ray Photo-Emission Electron Microscopy (XPEEM) provides the ability to obtain valence state information from mineral intergrowths with a submicron spatial resolution.
Using the state-of-the-art PEEM2 facility on beamline 7.3.1.1 at the Advanced Light Source, Berkeley, USA, a range of minerals, mineral intergrowths and mineralogical textures have been studied for a broad suite of geological, planetary and environmental science materials. High-quality, multi-element valence images have been obtained showing the distribution/variation of the metal valence states across single grains or mineral intergrowths/textures at the l00 nm scale and quantitative valence state ratios can be obtained from areas of ~0.01 .