Analysis of the electronic structure of human hemoglobin from soft X-ray emission

We present X-ray emission spectra (XES) of human hemoglobin excited near the iron L2,3 threshold and the nitrogen and carbon K-edges. The experiment is compared with our calculations of the corresponding spectra and gives good agreement. We find that the Fe L3 emission is affected by the nearest nitrogen atoms located in the heme plane around the central iron atom. The distribution of the partial electronic densities of states of hemoglobin is determined.