Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 June 2011
Nanoparticles (NPs) have attracted a considerable interest in the last decades, owing to their remarkable physical and chemical properties. The most important characteristic of NPs is the size effect, that is, their properties differ from that of the corresponding bulk material. We will focus here on Electron Energy-Loss Spectroscopy (EELS) investigations of Gd2O3 NPs of different and controlled sizes. EELS spectra near the O-K edge of Gd2O3 were recorded and compared with feff8.2 ELNES simulations. The calculation of the EELS response from small particles by the feff code raises some particular problems which have been carefully examined and partially solved. The simulations are in fair agreement with experiment and reveal the existence of size effects.