X-ray scattering techniques are a family of non-destructive analytical techniques which reveal information about the

crystal structure In crystallography, crystal structure is a description of the ordered arrangement of atoms, ions or molecules in a crystalline material. Ordered structures occur from the intrinsic nature of the constituent particles to form symmetric patterns t ...

, chemical composition, and physical properties of materials and thin films. These techniques are based on observing the scattered

intensity Intensity may refer to: In colloquial use * Strength (disambiguation) *Amplitude *Level (disambiguation) *Magnitude (disambiguation) In physical sciences Physics *Intensity (physics), power per unit area (W/m2) * Field strength of electric, ma ...

of an

X-ray X-rays (or rarely, ''X-radiation'') are a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. In many languages, it is referred to as Röntgen radiation, after the German scientist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, who discovered it in 1895 and named it ' ...

beam hitting a sample as a function of incident and scattered angle, polarization, and wavelength or energy. Note that X-ray diffraction is now often considered a sub-set of X-ray scattering, where the scattering is elastic and the scattering object is crystalline, so that the resulting pattern contains sharp spots analyzed by

X-ray crystallography X-ray crystallography is the experimental science determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline structure causes a beam of incident X-rays to diffract into many specific directions. By measuring the angle ...

(as in the Figure). However, both

scattering Scattering is a term used in physics to describe a wide range of physical processes where moving particles or radiation of some form, such as light or sound, are forced to deviate from a straight trajectory by localized non-uniformities (including ...

and diffraction are related general phenomena and the distinction has not always existed. Thus

Guinier Guinier is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * André Guinier (1911–2000), French physicist * Henri Guinier Henri Guinier (20 November 1867, Paris - 10 October 1927, Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a French portrait and landscape pain ...

's classic text from 1963 is titled "X-ray diffraction in Crystals, Imperfect Crystals and Amorphous Bodies" so 'diffraction' was clearly not restricted to crystals at that time.

Scattering techniques

Elastic scattering

* X-ray diffraction or more specifically Wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) *

Small-angle X-ray scattering Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) is a small-angle scattering technique by which nanoscale density differences in a sample can be quantified. This means that it can determine nanoparticle size distributions, resolve the size and shape of (monodi ...

(SAXS) probes structure in the nanometer to micrometer range by measuring scattering intensity at scattering angles 2θ close to 0°. *

X-ray reflectivity X-ray reflectivity (sometimes known as X-ray specular reflectivity, X-ray reflectometry, or XRR) is a surface-sensitive analytical technique used in chemistry, physics, and materials science to characterize surfaces, thin films and multilayers.J ...

is an analytical technique for determining thickness, roughness, and density of single layer and multilayer thin films. * Wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS), a technique concentrating on scattering angles 2θ larger than 5°. Schematic IXS spectrum

Inelastic X-ray scattering (IXS)

In IXS the energy and angle of inelastically scattered X-rays are monitored, giving the dynamic structure factor

S(\mathbf,\omega)

. From this many properties of materials can be obtained, the specific property depending on the scale of the energy transfer. The table below, listing techniques, is adapted from. Inelastically scattered X-rays have intermediate phases and so in principle are not useful for

. In practice X-rays with small energy transfers are included with the diffraction spots due to elastic scattering, and X-rays with large energy transfers contribute to the background noise in the diffraction pattern. *

References

External links

{{commons category, X-ray diffraction
Learning Crystallography

International Union of Crystallography

The International Centre for Diffraction Data (ICDD)

The British Crystallographic Association

Introduction to X-ray Diffraction
at

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the ...

Laboratory techniques in condensed matter physics X-ray crystallography Materials science X-ray scattering

Scattering techniques

Elastic scattering

Inelastic X-ray scattering (IXS)

See also

References

External links