Grazing incidence diffraction
Grazing incidence diffraction is a technique for interrogating a material using small incidence angles for an incoming wave, often leading to the diffraction being surface sensitive. It occurs in many different areas:
- Reflection high-energy electron diffraction, where electrons of relatively high energy diffract at small angles from a surface. RHEED is used to interrogate surface structure.
- Surface [X-ray Diffraction (SXRD)|Surface X-ray diffraction (SXRD)], which is similar to RHEED but uses X-rays, and is also used to interrogate surface structure.
- X-ray standing waves, another X-ray variant where the intensity decay into a sample from diffraction is used to analyze chemistry.
- Grazing-incidence small-angle scattering a hybrid approach using small scattering angles with X-rays or neutrons.
- X-ray reflectivity, yet another related technique, but here the intensity of the specular reflected beam is measured.
- Grazing incidence atom scattering, where the fact that atoms can also be waves is used to diffract from surfaces.
- Quantum reflection, where very low kinetic energy atoms or molecules are diffracted from surfaces.
- Evanescent waves, which occur with all of the above and also photons where there is no flow of energy into the material.