Simulation of Neutron Reflection from the Surface of a Nanostructured Object in the Modified Kinematic Approximation

Abstract

The applicability of the modified kinematic approximation for simulation of the specular reflection and the diffraction of a neutron beam from regularly ordered nanostructured objects on the surface and in the surface material layer is analyzed. The obtained results are compared with those of the real experiment and simulation of the distorted-wave Born approximation (DWBA). The influence of various factors on the obtained results is analyzed. These factors include the effect of neutron-wave refraction at the interfaces between media, the spectrometer-resolution function, and renormalization of the results for a nonspecular scattering signal based on data obtained for a specular channel. It is shown that, in many cases, it is possible to obtain rather good agreement with the experimental data and with the results of calculations using DWBA methods and of calculations using the Parratt algorithm.