Determination of Total X-ray Absorption Coefficient using Non-Resonant X-ray Emission

Inverse partial fluorescence yield (IPFY) is a newly developed x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) that utilizes non-resonant emission processes to measure the x- ray absorption of a material. Unlike XAS by traditional transmission, total electron yield and total fluorescence yield, IPFY is free of pinhole, saturation, and self-absorption effects. Moreover, IPFY exhibits a simple angle dependence that can be exploited to deduce the total x-ray absorption coefficient from a series of measurements performed with different experimental geometries. We quantitatively determine the total x-ray absorption coefficient of insulating NiO and NdGaO$_3$ single crystals at soft x-ray energies using this approach.