Three dimensional reconstruction of nanoislands from grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering

The combination of grazing-incidence small-angle x-ray scattering (GISAXS) with tomographic methods and phase retrieval is proposed for the reconstruction of the three-dimensional (3D) electron density of nanometer sized objects. In this approach GISAXS data from a small object are collected successively at different azimuthal angular positions. This 3D intensity distribution in reciprocal space is used for the phase retrieval and reconstruction of the 3D electron density. The power of our approach is demonstrated in a series of calculations performed in the frame of kinematical and distorted-wave Born approximation (DWBA) theories for the case of GISAXS scattering on a 200 nm island in the form of truncated pyramid.