X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) has experienced a rapid development in the last three decades and has proven to be a powerful structural characterization technique nowadays. In this review, the XAFS basic principles including the theory, the data analysis, and the experiments have been introduced in detail. To show its strength as a local structure probe, the XAFS applications in semiconductors are summarized comprehensively, that is, thin films, quantum wells and dots, dilute magnetic semiconductors, and so on. In addition, certain new XAFS-related techniques, such as in-situ XAFS, micro-XAFS, and time-resolved XAFS are also shown.
