X-Ray Reflectivity

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! X-ray reflectivity sometimes known as X-ray specular reflectivity, X-ray reflectometry, or XRR, is a surface-sensitive analytical technique used in chemistry, physics, and materials science to characterize surfaces, thin films and multilayers. It is related to the complementary techniques of neutron reflectometry and ellipsometry. The basic idea behind the technique is to reflect a beam of x-rays from a flat surface and to then measure the intensity of x-rays reflected in the specular direction (reflected angle equal to incident angle). If the interface is not perfectly sharp and smooth then the reflected intensity will deviate from that predicted by the law of Fresnel reflectivity. The deviations can then be analyzed to obtain the density profile of the interface normal to the surface.