Thermodynamic Properties and Anharmonic Effects in XAFS Based on Anharmonic Correlated Debye Model Debye–Waller Factors

Abstract

Thermodynamic properties and anharmonic effects in X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) have been studied based on the anharmonic correlated Debye model Debye–Waller factors presented in terms of cumulant expansion. The derived analytical expressions of three first XAFS cumulants involve more information on phonon-phonon interactions taken from integration over the first Brillouin zone. Many-body effects are taken into account in the present one-dimensional model based on the first shell near neighbor contributions to the vibrations between absorber and backscatterer atoms. Morse potential is assumed to describe single-pair atomic interaction included in the derived anharmonic interatomic effective potential. The present theory can be applied to any crystal structure including complex systems. Numerical results for Cu and Ni are found to be in good agreement with experiment and with those of the other theories.