GISAXS and SAXS studies on the spatial structures of Co nanowire arrays

The spatial structures of magnetic Co nanowire array embedded in anodic aluminium membranes were investigated by grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) and conventional small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) techniques.Compared with SEM observation,the GISAXS and SAXS measurements can get more overall structural information in a large-area scale.In this study,the two-dimensional GISAXS pattern was well reconstructed by using the IsGISAXS program.The results demonstrate that the hexagonal lattice formed by the Co nanowires is distorted (a ≈ 105 nm,b ≈ 95 nm).These Co nanowires are isolated into many structure domains with different orientations with a size of about 2 μm.The SAXS results have also confirmed that the nanopore structures in the AAM can be retained after depositing Co nanowires although the Co nanowires can not completely but only just fill up the nanopores.These results are helpful for understanding the global structure of the Co nanowire array.