Grazing Incidence X-Ray Diffraction

The principles of grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD) are discussed. A sample of a crystalline material is composed of a surface region including its top layer and a bulk part. The effect of the surface region on the intensity of surface X-ray diffraction cannot be generally disregarded. With the grazing configuration this small intensity is optimized and the structural parameters of surfaces, interfaces, and thin films can be determined through the comparison between the estimated, or experimental, and calculated structure factors. For the estimation, the experimental procedures to measure GIXD profiles around reciprocal lattice points with the necessary corrections are presented. A synchrotron X-ray source and diffractometers employed to perform GIXD experiments are briefly described. We conclude with two examples of systems investigated by means of GIXD: an electrochemical interface of Ag(1 0 0) and an epitaxial thin film of Bi4Ti3O12 grown on a TiO2 (1 0 1) single crystal.