Encompassing both didactic lectures and tutorials as well as “hands-on” experiment time at C-line, the workshop focused on giving participants a thorough background in both the practical and theoretical aspects of x-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) and high energy resolution fluorescence detected x-ray absorption spectroscopy (HERFD XAS).
During the morning lectures on the first day of the workshop, CHESS scientists Chris Pollock and Ken Finkelstein began by presenting an overview of these methods and their experimental considerations, followed by three talks on cutting edge applications of these techniques: Julian Rees from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab presented work on using XES and HERFD XAS to elucidate the geometric and electronic structure of VFe nitrogenase, Dimosthenis Sokaras from the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource discussed beamline developments and recent experimental results at SSRL, and Chris Pollock from CHESS talked about two-color XES on enzyme intermediates. In addition to the dozen participants present locally, another 30+ joined online to watch a live broadcast, including listeners from as far away as Puerto Rico, Germany, Norway, and Korea! All of the talks were recorded and can be found online at https://youtu.be/hQaw1djG_dM. After the talks, the first day of the workshop was rounded out with an afternoon software tutorial where participants could gain experience with the tools needed to process and analyze XES and HERFD XAS data.
For the next several days, beamtime was available at C-line for participants to use the Dual Array Valence Emission Spectrometer (DAVES) to measure their own samples. The participants performed a variety of experiments—everything from Ni Kα HERFD XAS to Yb Lα RIXS—and left with data that could be analyzed using the skills learned from the workshop.