REFLECTOMETRY WITH POLARIZED NEUTRONS AND THE PHASE PROBLEM

The consequences of surface roughness and experimental uncertainties f or the extraction of unique surface profiles from neutron specular ref lection measurements are studied. Simulated data have been analysed by a recently proposed method for phase determination involving the use of a magnetic reference layer and polarization measurements. Marchenko inversion is applied to extract the surface profiles. It is found tha t the requirements on surface roughness and experimental accuracy for a reliable determination of the surface profile an met by modern refle ctometry. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.