Resonant inelastic X-ray scattering

Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering (RIXS) is an x-ray spectroscopy technique used to investigate the electronic structure of molecules and materials.

Inelastic X-ray Scattering is a fast developing experimental technique in which one scatters high energy, x-ray photons inelastically off matter. It is a photon-in/photon-out spectroscopy where one measures both the energy and momentum change of the scattered photon. The energy and momentum lost by the photon are transferred to intrinsic excitations of the material under study and thus RIXS provides information about those excitations. The RIXS process can also be described as a Resonant X-ray Raman or Resonant X-ray Emission process.

RIXS is a resonant technique because the energy of the incident photon is chosen such that it coincides with, and hence resonates with, one of the atomic x-ray absorption edges of the system. The resonance can greatly enhance the inelastic scattering cross section, sometimes by many orders of magnitude