XANES investigation of manganese sulfide solid solutions.

A comprehensive study of the valence state and the local coordination character of Mn1-xYbxS (x = 0; 0.01; 0.05) solid solutions has been performed using X-ray absorption spectroscopy combined with finite difference method calculations. The good agreement between experimental and calculated data indicates that cationic substitution does not lead to significant changes in the manganese local coordination character. The ytterbium atoms are found to be in the trivalent state, while the manganese and sulfur atoms are in the divalent state.