The problem of measuring nanofilm structure on solid surfaces

A film of 10 nm on a chip of 1 mm thickness (10⁵ thickness ratio) scales equally as a 10 µm humidity film on a 1m thick block:

Measurement in transmission is hopeless. For related overviews please see:

• SAXS in grazing-incidence geometry (GISAXS)
• X-Ray Reflectometry (XRR)

These techniques have for a long time been the domain of synchrotron radiation. With the outstanding brilliance of Hecus S3-MICRO, they have now become available also for the home laboratory practice. This adds a new and powerful tool to the analytical arsenal in nanotechnology, both for R&D and for routine quality control applications.

Grazing-Incidence SAXS Scheme
X-Ray Reflectrometry Scheme

GISAXS with Hecus S3-MICRO

pattern obtained from dry lipid film (thickness ~ 0.5 µm) on Si support

X-Ray Reflectometry with Hecus S3-MICRO

50 nm Au/Cr film on glass slide, exposure time 1000 sec. Left: pattern obtained with 2D solid-state detector (Pilatus 100K, Dectris, Villigen, CH). Right: pattern obtained from Hecus 1D-PSD .