September 28-30, 2005

EXAFS Course: Theory, Experiment, and Advanced Applications

X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) data collection and analysis courses are held at the NSLS annually since 2001. While previous courses were aimed at the beginners and thus broad in scope, this 3-day (September 28-30) course was devoted to one technique: Extended XAFS (EXAFS). Participants in this course (the total of 32 scientists from US and Canada, representing universities, national laboratories and industrial companies) had prior familiarity with the basics of the technique and were interested in learning how to correctly design, perform and analyze EXAFS experiments in application to their research. The course was self-contained, starting with the fundamentals and proceeding to the more advanced topics, including recent theoretical developments, data analysis techniques and specific applications of EXAFS.

Participants in the EXAFS course.

The course consisted of three lecture sessions in the mornings, two hands-on experimental sessions in the afternoons, and one data analysis session during the last day of the course. The organizers identified 4 areas of interests: nanocatalysis, environmental/bio/geo chemistry, disordered alloys/thin films and transition metal oxides, and designed several research experiments in each of these areas. Experiments were conducted at 8 beamlines.

Lectures were taught by invited speakers: Edward Stern and Josh Kas (University of Washington), Grant Bunker (Illinois Institute of Technology), Anatoly Frenkel (Yeshiva University), Trevor Tyson (New Jersey Institute of Technology), Joseph Woicik (NIST), Douglas Hunter (SRNL), Scott Calvin (Sarah Lawrence College), and Douglas Pease (U. Connecticut). Among the highlights of the course were two talks, the "History of EXAFS" and the "Pitfalls of the Experiment and Data Analysis" taught by Edward Stern, one of the founders of the technique.

Beamline instructors were F. Alamgir (CUNY), T. Tyson, A. Frenkel, J. Woicik, A. Ignatov (Case Western Reserve University), K. Pandya (BNL), P. Norhtup (BNL), W. Caliebe (BNL), S. Khalid (BNL). Data analysis session was lead by S. Calvin, A. Frenkel, F. Alamgir, T. Tyson, J. Woicik, S. Khalid and P. Northrup.

The course administrator was Corinne Messana (BNL). The course was possible due to generous sponsorship by the National Synchrotron Light Source, Yeshiva University and the DOE Synchrotron Catalysis Consortium.

RELATED LINKS: Workshop Website

ARTICLE BY: Anatoly Frenkel