Nanophysics and Nanoscience

Nanophysics concerns natural phenomena at nanometre scale and involves studies of solids, fluids and gaseous substances on a scale that corresponds to one billionth of a metre, which is a dizzyingly small scale, right down at the size of individual atoms and molecules. Nanoscience is an interdisciplinary field between physics, chemistry, biology and medicine. It is a new branch of natural science that opens up for numerous opportunities for new and exciting technology. Nanostructures are studied experimentally by means of X-ray diffraction, which can show the spatial structure of, for example, solids, thin polymer film, nanoparticles and larger molecular complexes. With the new ultra-short X-ray and laser pulses, it is even possible to study the organisation of molecules in a chemical reaction. This book represents an essential source of up-to-date practical information on this subject.