Surface structure and patterns
What is measured?
One measures the long range order parameters of a nano-structured surface (GISAXS) or its atomic scale structure (GIWAXS).
The 2D scattering data gives an indication of the presence of such ordering while 1D data plotting along a given direction can give information about structure characteristic dimensions or orientation.
Figure 1. Wedge corrected grazing incidence wide angle x-ray scattering data acquired on a P3HT:PCBM thin film on a silicon substrate. The raw data is transformed with XSACT software such as to illustrate the in-plane and out-of-plane scattering patterns.
Samples
Typical samples for this measurement are polymers, inorganic materials of the following structure:
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Nanopatterned surfaces
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Nanostructured or porous thin films
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Nanolayered materials (stackings)
Example of GISAXS/ GIWAXS applications in polymer science:
- Müller‐Buschbaum, P. “The Active Layer Morphology of Organic Solar Cells Probed with Grazing Incidence Scattering Techniques”. Advanced Materials 26, 7692–7709 (2014).
Example of GISAXS data analysis for inorganic thin films:
- Hohn, N. et al. “Amphiphilic diblock copolymer-mediated structure control in nanoporous germanium-based thin films.” Nanoscale 11, 2048–2055 (2019).
- Reid, B. et al. “Photocatalytic Template Removal by Non-Ozone-Generating UV Irradiation for the Fabrication of Well-Defined Mesoporous Inorganic Coatings.” ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 11, 19308–19314 (2019).
Advantages of SAXS
Why use SAXS for surface structure and patterns determination?
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Statistical relevance : get information from several layers or surface
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Adapted for conducting or non conducting materials
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Non destructive method
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Compatible with in-situ dynamic experiments (temperature, drying)
Products
All these measurements are possible directly in your lab.
