X-ray scattering from freestanding polymer films with geometrically curved surfaces

Using x-ray specular and off-specular reflectivity measurements, it was demonstrated that a free-standing polymer thin film has anticonformally curved lens-shaped islands at long length scales and large separations. A geometric description for the height morphologies of two conformal or anticonformal surfaces was proposed. From the analytic calculation of the reflected intensities, it was revealed that the phase between the maxima positions in the longitudinal off-specular scans can unambiguously distinguish between conformal and anticonformal morphologies at the two opposing surfaces.