Modern soft X-ray emission spectroscopy - A new look on electronic structure

In the last decade or two soft X-rays have become much more available for various applications in science and technology due to developments in sources, components and instruments for these wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. The introduction of high brightness synchrotron radiation sources, and a corresponding development of efficient instruments has created an increasingly growing interest in the use of soft X-ray emission spectroscopy (SXES) in different contexts of electronic structure studies. The inherent ability of SXES to provide site and symmetry selective projections of the valence band electronic structure can be exploited for many problems, and additional elements of selectivity introduced by the well defined energy and polarization properties of the synchrotron beam can be used to obtain further derailed information. An overview is presented of recent advances in soft X-ray emission studies of molecules and solids.