Fig. 3

Ground-state and transient XAS spectra. a Experimental (black) and simulated (red) ground-state EXAFS spectrum. b The simulated difference EXAFS spectrum (blue) assuming an excited state structure corresponding to a \(V_{\mathrm{O}}^{2 + }\) vacancy with 15% Zn–O bond distortion away from the vacancy and 13% excitation overlaid with the experimental transient EXAFS spectrum (red) measured at 80 ps after excitation. c Experimental (black) and simulated (red) ground-state XANES spectrum. d The simulated difference XANES spectrum (blue) assuming an excited state structure identical to that simulated in (b) and 13% excitation shown with the experimental transient XANES spectrum (red) measured at 80 ps after excitation. Error bars shown are the standard error of the experimental measurement