Fig. 4: Calculated S(q) versus small angle X-ray scattering data³¹.

Anisotropy axis is vertical. The top panels display the calculated structure factor S(q). (a) isotropic; (b) nematic (ϵ = 0.25), and (c) planar (ϵ = 4) (axes and scale in Supplementary Materials). For the nematic simulation, at short q, S(q) has a dipolar shape with the “long axis" perpendicular to ϵ. For the planar case, at short q, S(q) has a dipolar shape with the “long axis" along the anisotropy direction. However, at larger q, as seen in the purple regions, the “long axis" of the anisotropy pattern is rotated by 90^o. The bottom panels display the small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) for lab-grown aerogel samples, adapted with permission from Elsevier: (d) isotropic, (e) axially compressed (12.7 % negative strain), and (f) stretched (13.7% positive strain) from ref. ¹⁷. The black square in the data images is the shadow of the X-ray beam stop, there is no data in those regions.