An improved EXAFS-function calculation procedure for materials with small interatomic separation

The extended structure of the Pt L₃ X-ray absorption edge for some platinum compounds was measured and Fourier inverted. It is shown that the way in which the contribution of the isolated atom is subtracted from the absorption spectrum may influence the shape of the first peak in the Fourier transform and possibly lead to erroneous structural interpretations concerning the first-neighbour shell of the absorbing atom. These errors are the more important the smaller the separation between the absorbing atom and its nearest neighbours. An improved method of subtraction of the isolated-atom absorption is proposed and checked.