Probing the electronic structure of single-atom doped TiO2 using photon-in/photon-out spectroscopy

We are interested in investigating the role of orbital hybridization in the magnetism of TiO2 and single-atom doped (e.g. Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu) TiO2 nanocrystals using element selective HERFD XAS, XES, and resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS). The motivation of this work is to find the reason behind the ferromagnetism in the single-atom (e.g. Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu) doped TiO2, an unexpected property with no bulk analogue. These XES/RIXS measurements can uniquely determine the spin state and identify whether the observed magnetization is due to a magnetic moment from one of the constituent elements, or their orbital hybridization.