Intrinsic and extrinsic x-ray absorption effects in soft x-ray diffraction from the superstructure in magnetite

TL;DR

This study investigates the intrinsic and extrinsic x-ray absorption effects in soft x-ray diffraction of magnetite's superstructure, providing a quantitative analysis of absorption contributions in the (001/2) diffraction peak.

Contribution

It offers a detailed quantitative analysis of absorption effects in soft x-ray diffraction of magnetite, including modeling of surface layer effects, which was not previously done.

Findings

Quantitative determination of intrinsic absorption effects.

Identification and modeling of extrinsic surface layer effects.

Consistent spectrum analysis of the (001/2) diffraction peak.

Abstract

We studied the (001/2) diffraction peak in the low-temperature phase of magnetite (Fe3O4) using resonant soft x-ray diffraction (RSXD) at the Fe-L2,3 and O-K resonance. We studied both molecular-beam-epitaxy (MBE) grown thin films and in-situ cleaved single crystals. From the comparison we have been able to determine quantitatively the contribution of intrinsic absorption effects, thereby arriving at a consistent result for the (001/2) diffraction peak spectrum. Our data also allow for the identification of extrinsic effects, e.g. for a detailed modeling of the spectra in case a "dead" surface layer is present that is only absorbing photons but does not contribute to the scattering signal.