EXAFS and XANES studies of americium dioxide with fluorite structure

Abstract

EXAFS and XANES analyses were applied in a study of americium dioxide (AmO2) with fluorite structure. EXAFS result for Am-LIII absorption edge of AmO2 was in good agreement with the long-ranged structural data from X-ray diffraction analysis. In order to characterize XANES in aspect of the electronic structure, the theoretical assignment for the AmO2 was performed with the relativistic DV-Xα molecular orbital method. The calculated XANES spectrum well reproduced the experimental spectrum. From this theoretical assignment, it was found that the peaks of the XANES spectrum were created due to the specific hybridization of orbital components.