17 research outputs found
Dielectric functions and collective excitations in MgB_2
The frequency- and momentum-dependent dielectric function as well as the energy loss function Im[-\protect{]} are calculated for intermetallic superconductor
by using two {\it ab initio} methods: the plane-wave pseudopotential method and
the tight-binding version of the LMTO method. We find two plasmon modes
dispersing at energies -8 eV and -22 eV. The high energy
plasmon results from a free electron like plasmon mode while the low energy
collective excitation has its origin in a peculiar character of the band
structure. Both plasmon modes demonstrate clearly anisotropic behaviour of both
the peak position and the peak width. In particular, the low energy collective
excitation has practically zero width in the direction perpendicular to boron
layers and broadens in other directions.Comment: 3 pages with 10 postscript figures. Submitted to PRB on May 14 200
Deconvolving Instrumental and Intrinsic Broadening in Excited State X-ray Spectroscopies
Intrinsic and experimental mechanisms frequently lead to broadening of
spectral features in excited-state spectroscopies. For example, intrinsic
broadening occurs in x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) measurements of heavy
elements where the core-hole lifetime is very short. On the other hand,
nonresonant x-ray Raman scattering (XRS) and other energy loss measurements are
more limited by instrumental resolution. Here, we demonstrate that the
Richardson-Lucy (RL) iterative algorithm provides a robust method for
deconvolving instrumental and intrinsic resolutions from typical XAS and XRS
data. For the K-edge XAS of Ag, we find nearly complete removal of ~9.3 eV FWHM
broadening from the combined effects of the short core-hole lifetime and
instrumental resolution. We are also able to remove nearly all instrumental
broadening in an XRS measurement of diamond, with the resulting improved
spectrum comparing favorably with prior soft x-ray XAS measurements. We present
a practical methodology for implementing the RL algorithm to these problems,
emphasizing the importance of testing for stability of the deconvolution
process against noise amplification, perturbations in the initial spectra, and
uncertainties in the core-hole lifetime.Comment: 35 pages, 13 figure