Single-particle X-ray absorption spectroscopy reveals that the oxidation state and cation distribution of individual magnetite nanoparticles may be largely heterogeneous even when the macroscopic structural and magnetic response of the ensembles is uniform.
In this study, spectroscopic investigations are employed to quantify the Ga distribution over the tetrahedral/octahedral sites and to assimilate the luminescence properties in the barely reported γ-Ga2.67O4 : Sm nanoparticles.