X-Ray Reflectivity and Grazing Incidence XRD - Application Note

Thin films are widespread in relevant fields such as optics, microelectronics, optoelectronics and hard coatings1 . Thin films are quasi-two dimensional materials, where the third dimension (thickness) is greatly reduced in comparison with the other two and usually ranges from a few atomic layers to hundreds or thousands of nm. They have unique properties significantly different from the corresponding bulk materials as a result of their physical dimensions, geometry, non-equilibrium microstructure and metallurgy. They are strongly influenced by surface, interface effects and under intrinsic stress caused by lattice misfit with the substrate on which they are grown. Moreover, thin films are often used as a model material, due to the easy control of microstructure and possibility of applying several complementary characterization techniques. X-Ray Reflectivity (XRR) and Grazing Incidence X-Ray Diffraction (GIXRD) are effective tools for the characterization of thin films and coatings, because they allow to get information on the parameters defining their functional properties.