Theoretical description of off-specular grazing-incidence nuclear resonant scattering of synchrotron radiation (Synchrotron Mössbauer Reflectometry, SMR) is presented. The recently developed SMR, similarly to polarized neutron reflectometry (PNR), is an analytical tool for the determination of isotopic and magnetic structure of thin films and multilayers. It combines the sensitivity of Mössbauer spectroscopy to hyperfine interactions and the depth selectivity of x-ray reflectometry. Specular reflection provides information on the depth profile, while off-specular scattering on the lateral structure of scattering layers. Off-specular SMR and PNR intensity formulae of a rather general multilayer with different domains, based on a Distorted Incident-Wave Approximation (DIWA) are presented. The Distorted-Wave Born Approximation (DWBA) results are given in an Appendix. Physical and numerical implications, why using DIWA, are explained.The temporal character of SMR imposes specific differences between SMR and PNR. In order to reveal the limits of DIWA and to compare the two analytical methods, two-dimensional diffuse SMR and PNR maps of an antiferromagnetic multilayer are calculated and critically compared.
Equations for the neutron reflection amplitude from a magnetic non-collinear
wave resonator (NWR) are obtained. It is shown that resonances of the same
reflection order of neutrons experiencing spin-flip (spin-flip neutrons) appear
in pairs. Conditions under which in the resonator square enhancement of the
spin-flip neutron reflection intensity with respect to growth of the portion of
scattered and absorbed neutrons takes place, are determined.Comment: Submitted to the journal "Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics
Research Section A". Variant 2 is after referee's revision. Corresponding
author is Yu.V. Nikitenko (nikiten@nf.jinr.ru). The manuscript contains 11
pages, 7 figures and 1 table. Keywords: Polarized neutron reflectometry;
Layered structures; Neutron resonance
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