Wall thickness and core radius determination in surfactant templated silica thin films using GISAXS and X-ray reflectivity

X-ray reflectometry and GISAXS (grazing angle small angle scattering) are combined to investigate the morphology and structural parameters of a surfactant templated 2D hexagonal thin-film silica mesophase. It is shown that X-ray reflectivity measurements contain invaluable information about the radius of the cylindrical rods and the distance between their cores. The reflectivity data are analyzed using a model of the electron density and combined with GISAXS measurements to derive the silica wall thickness.