Experimental determination of the core-excited electron density of states

We present an implementation of a method to determine different components of the local density of states in the presence of a core hole from inelastic x-ray scattering experiments. The only theoretical input needed beyond experimental data are the embedded atom transition matrix elements. In this work these matrix elements are calculated using a real-space multiple scattering approach. We apply the method to x-ray Raman scattering data for the boron K-edge in MgB 2 . The capability of the approach is demonstrated by separating the density of π-, σ- and s-type states at the boron site in MgB 2 .