title: Detecting non-bridging oxygens: non-resonant inelastic X-ray scattering in crystalline lithium borates.
abstract: Probing the local environment of low-Z elements, such as oxygen, is of great interest for understanding the atomic-scale behavior in materials, but it requires experimental techniques allowing it to work with versatile sample environments. In this paper, the local environment of lithium borate crystals is investigated using non-resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (NRIXS) at energy losses corresponding to the oxygen K-edge. Large variations of the spectral features are observed close to the edge onset in the 535-540 eV energy range when varying the Li2O content. Calculations allow identification of contributions associated with bridging oxygen (BO) and non-bridging oxygen (NBO) atoms. The main result resides in the observed core-level shift of about 1.7 eV in the spectral signatures of the BO and NBO. The clear signature at 535 eV in the O K-edge NRXIS spectrum is thus an original way to probe the presence of NBOs in borates, with the great advantage of making possible the use of complex environments such as a high-pressure cell or high-temperature device for in situ measurements.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Minéralogie de Physique des Matériaux et Cosmochimie (IMPMC), Sorbonne Universités-UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR CNRS 7590, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, IRD UMR 206 , 4 Place Jussieu, F-75005 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Gérald
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lelong
authors.forename: Guillaume
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Radtke
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cormier
authors.forename: Hanane
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bricha
authors.forename: Jean-Pascal
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Rueff
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Ablett
authors.forename: Delphine
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cabaret
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gélébart
authors.forename: Abhay
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shukla