Effect of chemical environment on L subshell fluorescence yields using synchrotron radiation

•Effect of chemical environment on L subshell fluorescence yields of some rare earth elements.•The selected rare earth compounds having same oxidation state and coordination number.•The compounds having different chemical bonding and crystal structures.•The measurement depend on chemical bonding and crystal structures for the selected targets.

The L1, L2 and L3 subshell fluorescence yields have been measured for some rare earth elements such as Gd, Tb, Ho and compounds such as Gd2(CO3)3, Tb2O3 and Ho2O3 using Indus-2 synchrotron radiation. By adopting reflection geometry, the elemental and compound targets are excited with 10 keV and 11 keV synchrotron radiations in order to generate the characteristic L X-ray photons. These energies of the characteristic L X-ray photons have been measured with a silicon drift detector, which has a high energy resolution of 130 eV at 5.9 keV. By measuring the intensities of L X-rays photons, the L subshell fluorescence yields have been determined for some rare earth elements and compounds and found to be dependent on chemical environment.