Materials characterization by synchrotron x-ray microprobes and nanoprobes

The Moore's law trajectory of hard x-ray spatial resolution extrapolates to a few nanometers within the next few years, thereby promising critical space-resolved structural, electronic, and compositional nanoscale characterizations for a wide variety of materials. This review addresses the capabilities and advantages of x-ray microbeam and nanobeam techniques compared to photon, electron, neutron, and ion probes through selected applications including semiconductors, superconductors, metals, and nanostructured devices.