Geometry:TSAXS 3D

In transmission-SAXS (TSAXS), the x-ray beam hits the sample at normal incidence, and passes directly through without refraction. TSAXS is normally considered in terms of the one-dimensional momentum transfer (q); however the full 3D form of the q-vector is necessary when considering scattering from anisotropic materials. The q-vector in fact has three components:

{\begin{alignedat}{2}\mathbf {q} &={\begin{bmatrix}q_{x}\\q_{y}\\q_{z}\end{bmatrix}}\\&={\frac {2\pi }{\lambda }}{\begin{bmatrix}\sin \theta _{f}\cos \alpha _{f}\\\cos \theta _{f}\cos \alpha _{f}-1\\\sin \alpha _{f}\end{bmatrix}}\end{alignedat}}

This vector is always on the surface of the Ewald sphere. Consider that the x-ray beam points along +y, so that on the detector, the horizontal is x, and the vertical is z. We assume that the x-ray beam hits the flat 2D area detector at 90° at detector (pixel) position $\scriptstyle (x,z)$ . The scattering angles are then:

{\begin{alignedat}{2}\theta _{f}&=\arctan \left[{\frac {x}{d}}\right]\\\alpha _{f}^{\prime }&=\arctan \left[{\frac {z}{d}}\right]\\\alpha _{f}&=\arctan \left[{\frac {z}{d/\cos \theta _{f}}}\right]\end{alignedat}}

where $\scriptstyle d$ is the sample-detector distance, $\scriptstyle \alpha _{f}^{\prime }$ is the out-of-plane component (angle w.r.t. to y-axis, rotation about x-axis), and $\scriptstyle \theta _{f}$ is the in-plane component (rotation about z-axis). The alternate angle, $\scriptstyle \alpha _{f}$ , is the elevation angle in the plane defined by $\scriptstyle \theta _{f}$ .

Total scattering

The full scattering angle is defined by a right-triangle with base d and height $\scriptstyle {\sqrt {x^{2}+d^{2}}}$ :

{\begin{alignedat}{2}2\theta _{s}=\Theta &=\arctan \left[{\frac {\sqrt {x^{2}+z^{2}}}{d}}\right]\\&=\arctan \left[{\frac {\sqrt {(d\tan \theta _{f})^{2}+(d\tan \alpha _{f}^{\prime })^{2}}}{d}}\right]\\&=\arctan \left[{\sqrt {\tan ^{2}\theta _{f}+\tan ^{2}\alpha _{f}^{\prime }}}\right]\\&=\arctan \left[{\sqrt {\tan ^{2}\theta _{f}+{\frac {\tan ^{2}\alpha _{f}}{\cos ^{2}\theta _{f}}}}}\right]\\\end{alignedat}}

The total momentum transfer is:

{\begin{alignedat}{2}q&={\frac {4\pi }{\lambda }}\sin \left(\theta _{s}\right)\\&={\frac {4\pi }{\lambda }}\sin \left({\frac {1}{2}}\arctan \left[{\frac {\sqrt {x^{2}+z^{2}}}{d}}\right]\right)\end{alignedat}}

Given that:

{\begin{alignedat}{2}\cos(\arctan[u])&={\frac {1}{\sqrt {1+u^{2}}}}\\\cos(2\theta _{s})&={\frac {1}{\sqrt {1+({\sqrt {x^{2}+z^{2}}}/d)^{2}}}}\\&={\frac {d}{\sqrt {d^{2}+x^{2}+z^{2}}}}\end{alignedat}}

We can also write:

{\begin{alignedat}{2}q&={\frac {4\pi }{\lambda }}\sin \left(\theta _{s}\right)\\&=\pm {\frac {4\pi }{\lambda }}{\sqrt {\frac {1-\cos 2\theta _{s}}{2}}}\\&={\frac {4\pi }{\lambda }}{\sqrt {{\frac {1}{2}}\left(1-{\frac {d}{\sqrt {d^{2}+x^{2}+z^{2}}}}\right)}}\\&={\sqrt {2}}{\frac {2\pi }{\lambda }}{\sqrt {1-{\frac {d}{\sqrt {x^{2}+d^{2}+z^{2}}}}}}\end{alignedat}}

Where we take for granted that q must be positive.

In-plane only

If $\scriptstyle \alpha _{f}=0$ (and $\scriptstyle \alpha _{f}^{\prime }=0$ ), then $\scriptstyle q_{z}=0$ , $\scriptstyle 2\theta _{s}=\theta _{f}$ , and: