Towards scanning nanostructure x-ray microscopy

TL;DR

This paper presents a method for spatially mapping nano-scale structures of thin films using synchrotron x-ray diffraction and PDF analysis, with automated software for data acquisition and analysis, demonstrated on a lab-on-chip array.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive protocol and software for automated spatial mapping of nanostructures via PDF analysis in x-ray microscopy.

Findings

Successful spatial mapping of nanostructures on a lab-on-chip array

Automated software handles data reduction and analysis

Images of local structure variations were generated

Abstract

We demonstrate spatial mapping of the local and nano-scale structure of thin film objects using spatially resolved PDF analysis of synchrotron x-ray diffraction data. This is demonstrated in a lab-on-chip combinatorial array of sample spots containing catalytically interesting nanoparticles deposited from liquid precursors using an ink-jet liquid handling system. We present a software implementation of the whole protocol including an approach for automated data acquisition and analyis using the atomic pair distribution function (PDF) method. The protocol software can handle semi-automated data reduction, normalization and modelling, with user-defined recipes generating a comprehensive collection of metadata and analysis results. By slicing the collection using included functions it was possible to build images of the 2D object containing using different quantities for contrast, allowing us to determine the spatial map relating to different aspects of the local structure on the array.