Polarized Neutron Reflectometry at the Presence of Smooth Interfacial Potential

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.