Polarized Neutron Reflectometry at the Presence of Smooth Interfacial Potential

TL;DR

This paper investigates how different models of smooth interfacial potentials affect polarized neutron reflectometry results, proposing methods to improve data accuracy and reduce noise in measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a comparative analysis of four functions modeling interfacial smoothness and proposes a new approach to enhance reflectometry data quality.

Findings

Smoothness models significantly influence reflectivity and polarization results.

The proposed method reduces noise and improves the accuracy of SLD determination.

Different potential functions yield varying degrees of compatibility with experimental data.

Abstract

Polarized neutron reflectometry (PNR) have developed theoretically and experimentally in the past decades. In order to resolve the phase problem in neutron reflectometry, several simulation methods have been proposed such as reference layer and the variation of surroundings. By considering some factors such as smoothness or roughness in simulations, it is tried to gain more compatible results with experiment. In this paper, by using four different functions "Linear, Airy, Eckart and Error function", we investigate the effects of the smoothness of the interfacial potential on reflectivity, polarization of reflected neutrons and determination of the SLD of the sample, using reference layer method with polarized neutrons. We have also proposed a solution in order to gain better results with less noise in output reflectivity data, at the presence of smoothness.