Near Edge X-Ray Absorption Fine Structure Spectroscopy with X-Ray Free-Electron Lasers

We demonstrate the feasibility of Near Edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy on solids by means of femtosecond soft x-ray pulses from a free-electron laser (FEL). Our experiments, carried out at the Free-Electron Laser at Hamburg (FLASH), used a special sample geometry, spectrographic energy dispersion, single shot position-sensitive detection and a data normalization procedure that eliminates the severe fluctuations of the incident intensity in space and photon energy. As an example we recorded the {sup 3}D{sub 1} N{sub 4,5}-edge absorption resonance of La{sup 3+}-ions in LaMnO{sub 3}. Our study opens the door for x-ray absorption measurements on future x-ray FEL facilities