Increased elemental specificity of positron annihilation spectra

Positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS) is a sensitive probe for studying the electronic structure of defects in solids. We show that the high-momentum part of the Doppler-broadened annihilation spectra can be used to distinguish different elements. This is achieved by using a new two-detector coincidence system to examine the line shape variations originating from high-momentum core electrons. Because the core electrons retain their atomic character even when atoms form a solid, these results can be directly compared to simple theoretical predictions. The new approach adds increased elemental specificity to the PAS technique, and is useful in studying the elemental variations around a defect site.