A soft X-ray fluorescence spectrometer for studies of molecular electronic structure

A spectrometer for the energy analysis of soft X-ray fluorescence spectra is described. The instrument is based on the photoelectric conversion technique, in which fluorescent photons from a sample irradiated with X-rays are allowed to ionise a converter gas with a sharp ionisation line and the resultant photoelectrons energy analysed with an electron energy analyser equipped with a multichannel detector. The photon energy range of the instrument was approximately 50 eV<h nu < approximately 5 keV with a resolution of less than 1 eV. High resolution spectra of the lines of O K (from Li 3 PO 4 , 526 eV), and Mo L 3 M 4,5 (2293 eV) are presented.