In addition, methods such as IR, UV, or FT-IR spectroscopy, NMR, EPR, or MS, X-ray diffraction and scattering are considered important due to two essential reasons: X-ray diffraction is virtually non-destructive, and X-ray photons with a wavelength in the nanometer range are the ideal sensor for the nanocosmos.
X-ray diffraction offers a number of different dedicated methods to investigate nano-structures: X-ray Reflectometry (XRR) determines layer thickness, roughness, and density; High-Resolution X-ray Diffraction (HRXRD) helps to verify layer thickness, roughness, chemical composition, lattice spacing and mismatches, relaxation, etc.; X-ray diffuse scattering to determine lateral and transversal correlations, distortions, density, and porosity; in-plane grazing incidence diffraction (IP-GID) to study lateral correlations of thinnest organic and inorganic layers, and depth profiling; Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) in transmission or grazing incidence SAXS (GISAXS) in reflection to determine the size, the shape, the distribution, orientation, and correlation of nano-particles present in solids or solutions.