Eur. Phys. J. D (2017) 71: 180
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2017-80051-8

Regular Article

Hierarchy effect on electronic structure and core-to-valence transitions in bone tissue: perspectives in medical nanodiagnostics of mineralized bone^*

¹ Solid State Electronics Department, St-Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, 198504, Russia
² Vreden Russian Research Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics, St. Petersburg, 195427, Russia

^a e-mail: dmitri.samoilenko@yandex.ru

Received: 25 January 2017
Published online: 4 July 2017

Abstract

Electronic structure and core-to-valence transitions in bone tissue are examined in the framework of the morphological 3DSL model that takes into account (i) structural and functional organization of the skeleton in the normal and pathological conditions and (ii) peculiarities of electron wave propagation in a three-dimensional superlattice of “black-nanocrystallites-in-muddy-waters”. Our focus is on the HAP-to-bone red shifts of core-to-valence transitions near Ca and P 2p and O 1s edges in single-crystal hydroxyapatite (HAP) Ca₁₀(PO₄)₆(OH)₂. The origin of the HAP-to-bone shift is discussed and the extended comparative analysis of the experimental data is performed. The detected spectral shift is assigned with the effect of hierarchical organization of bone tissue. This hierarchy effect on the core-to-valence transition energies is regarded as a promising tool for medical imaging and perspective pathway for nanodiagnostics of mineralized bone.