Infrared, Raman, and fluorescence/luminescence microspectroscopy/microscopy in many instances seek to provide high sensitivity compositional and functional information that goes beyond mere elemental composition. This goal is shared by NEXAFS microscopy, in which Near Edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy is employed to provide chemical sensitivity and can be relatively easily adopted in a scanning transmission x-ray microscope (STXM). In addition to compositional information, NEXAFS microscopy can exploit the dependence of x-ray absorption resonances on the bond orientation relative to the linearly polarized x rays (linear dichroism microscopy). For compositional analysis, NEXAFS microscopy is analogous to Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS) in an electron microscope. However, when utilizing near edge spectral features, NEXAFS microscopy requires a considerable lower dose than EELS microscopy which makes it very suitable to studying radiation sensitive materials such as polymers. NEXAFS has shown to have excellent sensitivity to a wide range of moieties in polymers, including sensitivity to substitution isomerism.
Single-pulse (100 ps) extended x-ray absorption fine structure capability at the Dynamic Compression Sector