A method of using parametric B-spline curves to interpret neutron and x-ray specular reflectivity spectra is described. The introduction of parametric curves for scattering length density profiles greatly expands the function space accessible to low-dimensional representations but also requires means to restrict the space to physically acceptable functions. A practical fitting procedure is outlined, and two examples are shown.

Microemulsions are isotropic mixtures of water, oil, and surfactant which self-assemble to form interfacial monolayers with a characteristic length scale on the order of hundreds of Angstroms. Small angle neutron scattering was used to determine the bulk structure of a wateroctane-C10E4 bicontinuous microemulsion. The mean curvature of the surfactant film was verified to be near zero by independently measuring the scattering contributions from the water-surfactant and oil-surfactant interfaces through hydrogen-deuterium contrast variation. The exponentially damped, oscillatory scattering length density profile of the microemulsion near a hydrophobic silicon surface was also observed with neutron reflectivity. The surface reflectivity results as well as the bulk small angle scattering measurements are explained using a simple Ginzburg-Landau theory.

X-ray and neutron reflectivity was used to determine the kinetics of adsorption and characterize the concentration profile of a low molecular weight trichlorosilane endfunctionalized polystyrene adsorbed onto polished silicon wafers. Higher adsorbed amounts were obtained from a cyclohexane solution of the polymer rather than toluene, with kinetics that followed a stretched exponential behavior. For moderately high grafting densities the polymer concentration profile in deuterated toluene (a good solvent) was best modelled using a small tailed parabola. In deuterated cyclohexane (a poor solvent) the brush profile steepened but was substantially smoother than a step, while in D20 (a non-solvent) it became step-like.

The results of specular and diffuse x-ray scattering studies of multilayers are discussed. We show here that such studies can yield detailed statistical information about the interfacial roughness and morphology. Results on a GaAs/AlAs multilayer are presented and the data is analyzed within the Born approximation.

We have used neutron reflectivity to measure the concentration profile of carboxylic acid-terminated polystyrene at the liquid/solid interface. Two isotopic systems were studied: (1) deuterated polystyrene (DPS) in cyclohexane and (2) polystyrene (PS) in deuterated cyclohexane. Although measured at 24°C (a poor solvent condition), the high grafting density of PS tethered chains causes the chains to weakly stretch to 3-5 times its unperturbed dimension. Although of similar molecular weight, the height of the DPS layer is about 50% higher than that of the PS. In both systems, the volume fraction of polymer near the wall is ∼ 0.60. For the DPS system, reflectivity profiles can be simulated using a parabolic profile with a depletion layer at the silicon-liquid interface. However, in the PS system, no depletion is observed. Here, the shape. of the PS concentration profile is parabolic with a rounded tail.

The specular reflectivity of neutrons has been used to characterize quantitatively the microphase separated morphology of symmetric, diblock copolymers of polystyrene, PS and polymethylmethacrylate, PMMA, as a function of the total molecular weight of the copolymer where either block is perdeuterated. It is shown that the hyperbolic tangent function, as opposed to a linear or cosine squared function, most closely describes the concentration gradient at the interface between the lamellar copolymer microdomains. The effective width of the interface is found to be independent of the molecular weight of the copolymer blocks and has a value of 50 ± 3Å. This interface is also found to be identical to that of PS and PMMA, homopolymers. However, using measured values of the Flory-Huggins interaction parameter for PS and PMMA current theoretical treatments cannot describe the observed widths of the interface.

The density of hydrogen in thin films or multilayers of metal hydrides can be inferred from an expansion of the host lattice as measured by conventional x-ray diffraction techniques. However, because hydrogen and deuterium have scattering lengths for neutrons that are comparable to those of most metal nuclei, unlike the corresponding case for x-ray atomic scattering amplitudes, the hydrogen density profile normal to the surface of a flat, thin film can be determined directly from neutron reflectivity measurements. The hydrogen (deuterium) density modulation in an artificial superlattice along the growth direction can also be determined in this manner. The thin film or multilayer host metal material need not even be crystalline. Furthermore, because relatively large, flat single crystal substrates such as Si or quartz are nearly transparent to neutrons, the substrate can serve as the incident medium and the reflectivities of films or multilayers in contact with liquid solutions can be obtained. Thus, in situ studies employing active electrochemical cells, for example, can be performed. In addition to discussing the sensitivity of the method, the results of some neutron reflectivity experiments on metal multilayers and films, electrolytically loaded in situ with deuterium, are reported in this paper.

The order-disorder transition in thin films of symmetric diblock copolymers of polystyrene and polymethylmethacrylate has been investigated by neutron reflectivity. At temperatures above the order-disorder temperature, TMST, a surface induced oscillatory segment density profile with an exponential decay length, χ, is observed. The inverse of decay length 1/≤ TMST a lamellar morphology oriented parallel to the surface propagates through the entire specimen.

Thin film bilayers of ferromagnetic Fe and nonmagnetic W have been deposited by sputtering on flat glass substrates according to a sequence of gradually varying bilayer thicknesses which in effect extends the critical angle for external mirror reflection for neutrons of one spin state when the Fe is magnetized in the plane of the film. The measured reflectivity of this Fe-W multilayer system is compared with that of other supermirror polarizers consisting of different materials and layer sequences.