Development of spin-contrast-variation neutron reflectometry

Kumada, Takayuki   ; Akutsu, Kazuhiro*; Oishi, Kazuki*; Morikawa, Toshiaki*; Kawamura, Yukihiko*; Sahara, Masae*; Suzuki, Junichi*; Miura, Daisuke*; Torikai, Naoya*

Neutron reflectivity (NR) is used to determine the nanostructure of surfaces and interfaces of thin film samples. NR has an ad-vantage over X-ray reflectivity for measuring deeply-buried interface of materials. However, it is difficult to determine the structure of complex multiple surface and interfaces of the thin film from a single reflectivity curve. To overcome the problem, we developed a new technique called spin-contrast-variation neutron reflectometry (SCV-NR), which utilizes the property that coherent polarized-neutron scattering length of a proton remarkably varies as a function of the proton polarization, PH, against the neutron polarization direction. As PH increases, the scattering length density (SLD) of each layer proportionally increases with the number density of protons, resulting in the variation of NR curves. The structure of multiple surface and interfaces of a thin film can be determined from the multiple curves.