Surface and Ultra-Thin Film Characterization by Grazing-Incidence Asymmetric Bragg Diffraction

Abstract

AbstractAn effective technique using grazing-incidence X-rays and asymmetric-Bragg diffraction (GIABD) for the characterization of crystalline phases on surfaces and structural depth-profiles in thin films is described. The application of the GIABD using both X-ray and synchrotron radiation sources for the analysis of an iron-oxide magnetic thin film previously reported to have an unexpected magnetically-dead layer is discussed. The X-ray diffraction analysis using the GIABD and the conventional θ-2θ scanning techniques detected an anti-ferromagnetic hexagonal α-Fe2O3 on the surface and a ferromagnetic tetragonal γ-Fe2O3 in the bulk of the film, respectively. The synchrotron diffraction analysis using incident angles below and above the critical angle of total reflection quantitatively determined the structural depth-profiles of α-Fe2O3 and γ-Fe2O3 in the film.