AVS 63rd International Symposium & Exhibition
    Novel Trends in Synchrotron and FEL-Based Analysis Focus Topic Monday Sessions
       Session SA+AS+MI-MoM

Invited Paper SA+AS+MI-MoM3
Applications of Novel Hard X-ray Nanoprobe in Nanoscience

Monday, November 7, 2016, 9:00 am, Room 103C

Session: Advances in High-Resolution Imaging Techniques (8:20-10:20 am)/Pushing the Limits with X-Ray Spectroscopy (10:40 am-12:00 pm)
Presenter: Gema Martinez-Criado, Madrid Materials Science Instititute, CSIC, Spain
Correspondent: Click to Email
Owing to the spatial resolution and sensitivity (i.e., signal to background ratio), nano and micro X-ray beams are emerging tools with a strong impact in nanoscience. Although the optical quality of the X-ray focusing devices has limited the progress of hard X-ray nanoprobes, recent advances in fabrication techniques have pushed the spatial resolution towards the diffraction limit. As a result, the use of nano and micro X-ray beams has begun to extend towards the atomic domain, with concomitant and continuous developments of multiple analytical tools. The study of micro/nanoscale objects, small embedded nanodomains with weak signals and/or heterogeneous structures at the nanometer scales has required the use of intense X-ray pencil beams. Additionally, stimulated by the great brilliance with reduced emittance of current third generation synchrotron sources, and new developments in X-ray detector technology, today intense nano-X-ray beams are available with a variety of focusing devices. Finally, thanks to the multiple interactions of X-rays with matter these X-ray probes can be used for manifold purposes, such as ultra-sensitive elemental/chemical detection using X-ray fluorescence/X-ray absorption, or for identification of minority phases, and/or strain fields by X-ray diffraction with nanometer resolution. In the present talk I describe how hard X-ray nanobeams are produced and exploited today for space-resolved determination of structural and electronic properties, as well as for chemical speciation of nanosized materials. Selected recent examples will range from phase separation in single nanowires to visualization of dislocations and buried interfacial defects, to domain distortions and quantum confinement effects.