Using three-dimensional 3D grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) analysis to probe pore deformation in mesoporous silica films.

In the past decade, remarkable progress has been made in studying nanoscale objects deposited on surfaces by grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS). However, unravelling the structural properties of mesostructured thin films containing highly organized internal three-dimensional (3D) structures remains a challenging issue, because of the lack of efficient algorithms that allow prediction of the GISAXS intensity patterns. Previous attempts to calculate intensities have mostly been limited to cases of two-dimensional (2D) assemblies of nanoparticles at surfaces, or have been adapted to specific 3D cases.