Extended x-ray absorption fine structure studies of oriented single crystals

Linearly polarized synchrotron radiation is used to study the orientation dependence of the Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) spectrum of single crystal zinc. The spectrum some 5–1200 eV above the K photoabsorption threshold is found to be markedly anisotropic, as would be expected from the established formalism generalized to crystals of lower than cubic symmetry. Zinc thus provides a prototype for molecular crystals of low symmetry where one wishes to study particular bond directions.