X-ray characterization of nanostructures

Thanks to the short wavelength, X-rays can provide diffraction information from nanoscale objects. This feature has been extensively used to study crystal lattices since the beginning of the 20th century, and the vast majority of crystal structures were characterized by X-ray diffraction. Nowadays, with the development of bright synchrotron sources, we can utilize ultra-bright X-ray beams with a nanosized focus spot and tunable energy. It makes X-rays a very important tool to characterize the structure of novel materials and devices on the nanoscale.
In this lecture, we will discuss fundamentals of X-ray diffraction and crystallography. We will talk about the most common X-ray scattering techniques, such as small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and in-situ X-ray diffraction. In the end, we will talk about recent advances of X-ray synchrotron sources and opportunity to use a nanofocused X-ray beam to study the structure of the nanoobjects with spatial resolution.

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