Specular reflectivity (Ta/Cu/Nb/Gd/Nb/Al2O3). Example with mass density fit.

In this notebook we are going to fit the data published in the following article [https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.97.144511]. The given sample is a Nb(25nm)/Gd(7nm)/Nb(25nm) trilayer on a Al2O3 substrate and covered with Ta/Cu thin films. In the previous notebook about specular reflectivity we have demonstarted how the module works, where as an experimental data we took the curve generated with Parratt32 program. The idea of this notebook is to demonstrate how to work with real experimental data in terms of ESCAPE. The result obtained here could be slightly different from what is published, because we do not have all details about published model.

We first define our parameters, which we are going to fit. The names of these parameters are self-explanatory.

Next we create materials, layers and finally the sample objects.

The contribution of resolution function is negligible, but as a demonstration we will take it into account. The beam FWHM can be also defined as a parameter. This can help, if resolution function cannot be estimated properly. Normally this paramater is fixed.

Below we take into account sample size. At low angles the X-rays or neutrons beam doesn't cover the whole sample leading to the reduction of intensity. Usually this correction is done for the data, but can be also added to the model as a fit parameter in the case if some characteristics are not known.