AbstractThe positions and shapes of L2 X‐ray absorption edges of Gd, Dy, Ho and Er have been studied in metals and in oxides and chlorides, using a forty centimetre benbt mica crystal spectrograph. It has been found that the L2 edge shifts towards the high energy side in the compounds and that the chemical shift ΔEdepends on the degree of covalency involved. The white line structure at the edge has been analysed in terms of transitions of L2 shell electron to opticalnd(n≥5) st