Actually with SEM image by contrast we can analyse which is out-of-plane nano-wire & which is in-plane nano-wire. Can we have any other techniques rather than image technique like SEM to conform it.
You need to do the X ray diffraction technique, and with that HRTEM would be a handy tool for confirmation
What I understand from your question is that you would like to distinguish/differentiate in-plane grown nanowires from vertical ones locally/spatially on a particular substrate?! If this is right then I would envisage that some of the nanowires are grown in-plane (on the surface) and some are out- of-plane but very inclined toward the surface as it is hard to differentiate them from the in-plane ones. So in this case I am not sure if XRD would give you any specific information on the orientation of nanowire locally and spatially. XRD pattern of random oriented nanowires is similar to powder XRD pattern while XRD pattern of vertical nanowires is kind of similar to an epitaxial grown thin film. So XRD gives you crystallographic orientation of the bulk of the nanowires. What else you can do to observe wether a single nanowire is in-plan or out of plane is to tilt the SEM stage (~45 degree) and look at the nanowires on any position of the sample. that may give you a better image.
However, unfortunately I cannot come up with any other technique.
I don't have my work published yet but I am working w nanowires grown on glass as well. Are you planning to physically separate the in-plane and out of plane Wires Into Two samples? Or are they ultimately supposed to stay on the substrate? I am using a PDMS reaction to get our out of plane wires off the substrate. Maybe this method of separating the samples would provide easier data to image using secondary electrons and BSE.
In plane and out of plane measurements by means of Grazing Incidence X-ray Diffraction (GIXRD) may fit to your needs.
Just have a look to (and particularly to #2):
1. Li Destri G., Keller T. F. Catellani, M., Punzo F., Jandt K. D., Marletta G. Interfacial Free Energy driven nanophase separation in poly(3-hexylthiophene)/[6,6]- phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester thin films. Langmuir 2012, 28, 5257-5266.
2. Li Destri G., Keller T., Catellani M., Punzo F., Jandt K. D., Marletta G. Crystalline Monolayer Ordering at Substrate-Polymer Interfaces in Poly-3-hexylthiophene Ultrathin Films. Macromol. Chem. and Phys. 2011, 212, 905-914.
Shamjid, it is quite a complex question and devil is in the details. I worked with so-called molecular wires, which can be aromatic and aliphatci molecules. So if you have aromatic moleucles in plane in respect to glass than they can be detected by simple absorption measurement, as the cross-section for in-plabe and out of place molecules is different. Also the out-of-plane molecules can create the new absorbtion band due to new charge delocalization. If your system is close to what I am trying to explain, please contact me for more details or just review my publications on Research Gate
You can try with the Helium Ion Microscopy.
http://www.beilstein-journals.org/bjnano/single/articleFullText.htm?publicId=2190-4286-3-57
It may be possible to do an XRD polar plot. Basically a single crystal diffraction set-up, but moving your sample to get a specific reflection only at an angle of 90° (or 0°, depending, how you start your scan) if the nanowires are perpendicular to the substrate. If the angle required to get a diffraction spot is different, you have different orientations.
As a distinguishing tool this will work only if you have a considerable difference in tilt angle between perpendicular and non-perpendicular nanowires.
You can measure hysteresis loop of magnetic moment vs magnetic field in vsm and tell which one is in plane and which one is out of plane
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