Material:Silicon
Silicon is crystalline solid with a diamond cubic crystal structure. Silicon wafers are frequently used as substrates for samples used in GISAXS. Si wafers make ideal substrates because they are very smooth at the atomic/nano scale, and are also very flat across larger (macroscale) distances. Note, however, that sample preparation (e.g. spin coating) may stress the wafer and 'kink' it, with effects that can be visible in GISAXS and especially reflectivity experiments.
Scattering
Because silicon is normally a single-crystal, it leads to no discernible peaks on the detector unless the crystal lattice is aligned to satisfy the Bragg condition (i.e. the Ewald sphere must intercept a peak in the reciprocal lattice).
Properties
- Density: 2.3290 g/cm3
- Neutron SLD: 2.074×10−6 Å−2
