Final-state symmetry of Na 1s core-shell excitons in NaCl and NaF

We report measurements of the Na 1s contribution to the nonresonant inelastic x-ray scattering (NRIXS) from NaCl and NaF. Prior x-ray absorption studies have observed two pre-edge excitons in both materials. The momentum-transfer dependence (q dependence) of the measured NRIXS cross section and of real-space full multiple scattering and Bethe-Salpeter calculations determine that the higher-energy core excitons are s type for each material. The lower-energy core excitons contribute at most weakly to the NRIXS signal and we propose that these may be surface core excitons, as have been observed in several other alkali halides. The analysis of the orbital angular momentum of these features leads to a discussion of the limited sensitivity of NRIXS measurements to d-type final states when investigating 1s initial states. In this case the s- and p-type final density of states can be characterized by measurements at a small number of momentum transfers. This is in contrast to the case of more complex initial states for which measurements at a large number of momentum transfers are needed to separate the rich admixture of accessible and contributing final-state symmetries.