New X-Ray Technique for Electronic Structures: Ability to Probe Deep Below Material Surfaces Should Be Boon for Nanoscale Devices, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Study

The expression "beauty's only skin-deep" has often been applied to the chemistry of materials because so much action takes place at the surface. However, for many of the materials in today's high technologies, such as semiconductors and superconductors, once a device is fabricated it is the electronic structures below the surface, in the bulk of the material or in buried layers, that determine its effectiveness. For the past 30 years, one of the most valuable and widely used techniques for studying electronic structures has been ARPES -- Angle-Resolved PhotoEmission Spectroscopy. However, this technique primarily looks at surfaces.

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