Investigation of Nanostructures with X-ray Scattering Techniques

Abstract

incidence small angle X-ray scattering, X-ray beam induced current.The structural investigations of nanomaterials motivated by their large variety and diverse set of applications have attracted considerable attention. In particular, the everimproving machinery, both in laboratory and at large scale facilities, together with the methodical improvements available for studying nanostructures ranging from epitaxial nanomaterials, nanocrystalline thin films and coatings, to nanoparticles and colloidal nanocrystals allows us to gain a more detailed understanding of their structural properties. As the structure essentially determines the physical properties of the materials, this advances the possibilities of structural studies and also enables a deeper understanding of the structure to property relationships. In this special issue entitled "Investigation of Nanostructures with X-ray Scattering Techniques" five contributions show the recent progress in various research fields. Contributions cover topics as diverse as neutron scattering on magnetic multilayer films, epitaxial orientation of organic thin films, nanoparticle ordering and chemical composition analysis, and the combination of nanofocused X-ray beams with electrical measurements.In the following we will briefly discuss the contributed papers in order of their submission date. In the first contribution Roland Resel et al.[1] study the epitaxial order of organic thin films. Epitaxy with organic molecules is a rich field due to the wide variety of available organic molecules and their application in organic electronics [2]. An additionally enriching fact is that by the epitaxial growth often metastable, previously unknown, crystal structures of the molecule are found [3]. In their contribution Resel et al. showed that even in cases where the bulk crystal structure prevails during epitaxial growth, the heteroepitaxial orientation of the organic thin film with respect to a single crystalline substrate is a complicated issue on its own. The authors show that for quinquephenyl (5P) films on Cu(110)(2x1)O single crystals the lattice misfit minimization fails to predict the actually occurring orientation of the molecules on the surface. Instead, it is the initial growth stage where the individual molecules fill with their rod-like shape the grooves present in the surface corrugation of the Cu-oxide surface, which determines the epitaxial orientation.Ryuji Maruyama et al.[4] present a study on the magnetization reversal behavior of thin polycrystalline Fe/Si multilayers by polarized neutron scattering and grazing incidence small-angle neutron scattering. The study shows how the magnetic properties of such multilayers differ from the bulk behavior. In particular, the authors show that in contrast to