A new tool for nanoscale X-ray absorption spectroscopy and element-specific SNOM microscopy

Investigations of complex nanostructured materials used in modern technologies require special experimental techniques able to provide information on the structure and electronic properties of materials with a spatial resolution down to the nanometer scale. We tried to address these needs through the combination of X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) using synchrotron radiation microbeams with scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) detection of the X-ray excited optical luminescence (XEOL) signal. The first results obtained with the prototype instrumentation installed at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (Grenoble, France) are presented. They illustrate the possibility to detect an element-specific contrast and to perform nanoscale XAS experiments at the Zn K and W L₃-absorption edges in pure ZnO and mixed ZnWO₄/ZnO thin films.