X-ray Diffraction and Scattering from Nanostructures

Nowadays, the development of new materials is often associated with specific properties of functionalized nano structures. X-ray investigations are a very important tool to find the link between the functional (magnetism, luminescence) and the corresponding structural properties (size, orientation etc.) that are generating this function. This knowledge makes it possible to design new materials with specific properties.
This tutorial will show how modern X-ray scattering methods are used in material science. Beside standard X-ray diffraction techniques we will show that with up-to-date laboratory setups X-ray methods can be applied that were some years ago only possible using synchrotron radiation. The advantage and peculiarities of different geometries, 1- and 2-dimensional detectors will be discussed, e.g. they are very efficient for the measurement of large reciprocal space maps at medium resolution.
Different examples will be shown like the investigation of semiconductor nanostructures, of fluorescence up-converting nano particles potentially used in medical applications or grazing incidence diffraction measurements of thin magnetic metallic films.