The Early Times of X-Ray Spectroscopy in Italy Antonio Bianconi 1,2,3
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The early times of X-ray spectroscopy in Italy Antonio Bianconi 1,2,3 1Rome International Center Materials Science Superstripes (RICMASS), Via dei Sabelli 119A, 00185 Roma, Italy 2Institute of Crystallography, CNR, via Salaria Km 29.300, Monterotondo Roma, 00015, Italy 3National Research Nuclear University, MEPhI, Kashirskoe sh. 31, 115409 Moscow, Russia During his thesis on the construction of a X-ray tube for imaging with Puccianti in Pisa, Enrico Fermi was attracted in 1921 by the Roentgen rays experiments which contributed to the formulation of Quantum Mechanics. He was friend of scientists interested in the theory of X-ray spectroscopy: Kronig, Wentzel, Landé and Sommerfeld, as a probe of the electron spin revealed by the splitting of X-ray lines. The theory group of via Panisperna, Majorana, Gentile, Pincherle, and Fano, continued to work in this field from 1928 to 1938 focusing on atomic physics of quasi stationary states, non radiative decay and Rydberg states in heavy atoms. 20 years later, Ugo Fano proposed to Amaldi the revival of “X-ray spectroscopy” in Italy by using the Frascati 1 GeV electron-synchrotron as a X- ray synchrotron radiation source. When I started to work in X-ray spectroscopy in Frascati I found there the instrumentation of the sixties, made of a Cauchois X-ray crystal spectrometer and a soft x-ray grazing incidence spectrometer. In 1971 we built a new X-ray facility with two new beam lines and two monochromators. Ugo Fano in Frascati was our supervisor in the summer semester. In 1972-1974 we recorded high resolution near edge Al L3 X-ray absorption spectra of polymorphic Al2O3 interpreted as multiple scattering resonances or shape resonances predicted by Ugo Fano and his theoretical group in Chicago for simple molecules. In early seventies Americans started to call with a new acronym “EXAFS”, the old Kronig structure known in Rome since 1930. The project and construction of the X-ray PULS facility was carried out from 1975 to 1979. In 1976-1977 to run soft X-ray and hard X-ray spectroscopy at a high energy storage ring I moved to SSRL in Stanford. The early X-ray group of PULS formed by Balzarotti, Bianconi and Burattini reached the critical mass with new members: Mobilio, Savoia, Comin and Incoccia. The collaborations with Settimio Mobilio produced the early XANES experiments [1-6] in the first years (1980-1984) of the operation of the PULS facility at Adone in Frascati. 1. Belli, M., Scafati, A., Bianconi, A., Mobilio, S., Palladino, L., Reale, A., & Burattini, E. (1980). X-ray absorption near edge structures (XANES) in simple and complex Mn compounds. Solid State Communications, 35(4), 355-361. 2. Bianconi, A., Dell'Ariccia, M., Giovannelli, A., Burattini, E., Cavallo, N., Patteri, P., Pancini, E ... Fornasini P., Dalba G. Mobilio S., Palladino, L. (1982). EXAFS studies with synchrotron radiation of polystyrene-ruthenium catalyst. Chemical Physics Letters, 90(4), 257-260. 3. Bianconi, A., Giovannelli, A., Castellani, L., Alema, S., Fasella, P., Oesch, B., & Mobilio, S. (1983). X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) determination of calcium sites of troponin C and parvalbumin. Journal of molecular biology, 165(1), 125-138. 4. Belli, M., Bianconi, A., Burattini, E., Mobilio, S., Natoli, C. R., Palladino, L., ... & Scafati, A. (1983). Mn (II) Binding to Nucleotides and Nucleic Acids. In EXAFS and Near Edge Structure (pp. 345-348). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. 5. Benfatto, M., Bianconi, A., Davoli, I., Incoccia, L., Mobilio, S., & Stizza, S. (1983). Role of multielectron excitations in the L3 XANES of Pd. Solid state communications, 46(5), 367 6. Bianconi, A., Castellano, A. C., De Santis, M., Politis, C., Marcelli, A., Mobilio, S., & Savoia, A. (1987). Lack of delocalized Cup states at the fermi level in the high-T c superconductor YBa2Cu3O7 by XANES spectroscopy. Zeitschrift für Physik B Condensed Matter, 67(3), 307-312. .