1913–2013 – The centennial of X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS): Evidences about a question still open

Abstract

In 1913 J. Herweg first (June 30) and M. de Broglie slightly later (November 17) claimed the discovery of a series of spots and lines closely following the main absorption edges of heavy metals, which they interpreted as the proof of the existence of X-ray spectra analogous to light spectra. In the following year they documented their discoveries via photographic plates. However, they were both discredited: Herweg by G.E.M. Jauncey, who showed that his spectra, taken on Pt and W, did not obey Moseley's rule; de Broglie by W.H. Bragg, M. Siegbahn and E. Wagner, who showed that his lines were in fact the fluorescence lines of the Ag and Br constituents of the photographic emulsion. Consequently, W. Stenström's description (sent to publisher on July 2, 1918) of certain photographically recorded and graphically rendered modulations near the M-series edges of heavy metals may possibly be the first published evidence of true X-ray absorption spectra. Indeed, they were interpreted as such by W. Kossel (1920) in his seminal theoretical paper. Otherwise, H. Fricke's table, although printed in 1920, which exhibits the photographic plate of sulphur absorption dated October 1, 1918, and its graphical rendering by a photometric method, is the first unequivocally dated evidence of recorded modulations at a XAS K-edge.