Gases

X-ray absorption spectroscopy of gases is seldom used for structural analysis, except in as much as the extended X-ray absorption fine-structure (EXAFS) signal is used to monitor some specific molecular process. Gas spectroscopy, however, has been the main tool in the systematic study of higher-order photoabsorption processes, multielectron photoexcitations (MEEs), which were introduced with an experiment at the K edge of argon. Along with noble gases, where MEEs are studied in the pure form, free of the structural signal, measurements have been extended to monatomic metal vapours, although at the cost of considerable experimental difficulties. Several types of absorption cells have been devised, among them the ceramic double cell and the heat-pipe cell for experiments in the low-energy region. In a high-temperature oven with considerable technical refinement, edge profiles of nonvolatile metals were measured up to 2500 K. Edge profiles and MEEs, which are strongly dependent on electron correlation, provide sensitive tests of the theory of atomic and molecular structure.