Visualization of elemental distributions and local analysis of element-specific chemical states of an Arachnoidiscus sp. frustule using soft X-ray spectromicroscopy

Abstract

Using soft X-ray (SX) spectromicroscopy, we show maps of the spatial distribution of constituent elements and local analysis of the density of states (DOS) related to the elementspecific chemical states of diatom frustules, which are composed of naturally grown nanostructured hydrogenated amorphous silica. We applied X-ray photoemission electron microscopy (X-PEEM) as well as microprobe X-ray fluorescence (μXRF) analysis to characterize the surfaces of diatom frustules by means of X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES). We successfully demonstrated that SX spectromicroscopy is able to participate in potential observation tools as a new method to spectroscopically investigate diatom frustules.