EXAFS spectroscopy,from one perspective

Summary Extended X-ray absorption fine-structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy has been demonstrated to be a most useful probe of short-range interatomic correlations in a wide variety of materials. The theory of the EXAFS is presented in its simplest form so as to provide the basis for a discussion about the kind and quality of the structural information which can be extracted from EXAFS data. The adequacy of several of the approximations commonly incorporated in this theory is examined with emphasis on those areas of the theory which bear most directly on the analysis of EXAFS data. Paper presented at the Workshop on ?EXAFS Data Analysis in Disordered Systems?, held in Parma, October 5–7, 1981.