Role of resonant inelastic X-ray scattering in high-resolution core-level spectroscopy of actinide materials

This paper provides a brief overview of applications of advanced X-ray spectroscopic techniques that take advantage of the resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) in the hard and tender X-ray range and have recently become available for studying the electronic structure of actinides. We focus here on the high-energy-resolution X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) and core-to-core and core-to-valence RIXS spectroscopies at the U L and M edges of uranium compounds. The spectral features are analyzed using a number of theoretical methods, such as the Anderson impurity model, density functional theory in the local density approximation with an added Coulomb interaction (LDA + U), and full multiple scattering (FEFF) and ab initio finite difference method near-edge structure (FDMNES) codes. In connection with presented results, the capabilities and limitations of the experimental techniques and theoretical methods are discussed.