International Center for Young Scientists, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-2-1 Sengen, 305-0047, Tsukuba, Japan.
J Phys Condens Matter. 2013 Sep 25;25(38):383201. doi: 10.1088/0953-8984/25/38/383201. Epub 2013 Aug 29.
For obtaining reliable nanostructural details of large amounts of sample--and if it is applicable--small-angle scattering (SAS) is a prime technique to use. It promises to obtain bulk-scale, statistically sound information on the morphological details of the nanostructure, and has thus led to many a researcher investing their time in it over the last eight decades of development. Due to pressure from scientists requesting more details on increasingly complex nanostructures, as well as the ever improving instrumentation leaving less margin for ambiguity, small-angle scattering methodologies have been evolving at a high pace over the past few decades. As the quality of any results can only be as good as the data that go into these methodologies, the improvements in data collection and all imaginable data correction steps are reviewed here. This work is intended to provide a comprehensive overview of all data corrections, to aid the small-angle scatterer to decide which are relevant for their measurement and how these corrections are performed. Clear mathematical descriptions of the corrections are provided where feasible. Furthermore, as no quality data exist without a decent estimate of their precision, the error estimation and propagation through all these steps are provided alongside the corrections. With these data corrections, the collected small-angle scattering pattern can be made of the highest standard, allowing for authoritative nanostructural characterization through its analysis. A brief background of small-angle scattering, the instrumentation developments over the years, and pitfalls that may be encountered upon data interpretation are provided as well.
为了获取大量样本的可靠纳米结构细节——如果适用的话——小角散射（SAS）是一种主要的技术手段。它有望获得关于纳米结构形态细节的大规模、统计学上合理的信息，因此，在过去的八十年发展中，许多研究人员都投入了时间来研究它。由于科学家们要求提供更多关于日益复杂的纳米结构的细节，以及不断改进的仪器设备使得歧义的余地越来越小，因此，在过去的几十年中，小角散射方法学一直在高速发展。由于任何结果的质量都只能与这些方法学中使用的数据一样好，因此，这里回顾了数据收集和所有可以想象的数据校正步骤的改进。这项工作旨在提供所有数据校正的全面概述，以帮助小角散射器决定哪些校正与他们的测量相关，以及如何执行这些校正。在可行的情况下，提供了对校正的清晰的数学描述。此外，由于没有对其精度的合理估计，就不存在高质量的数据，因此，在所有这些步骤中都提供了误差估计和传播。通过这些数据校正，可以将收集到的小角散射模式制作成最高标准，通过分析可以进行权威的纳米结构表征。还提供了小角散射的简要背景、多年来的仪器设备发展以及在数据解释时可能遇到的陷阱。
