Reflection
The basic idea is to reflect a beam of X-rays from a surface and to measure the intensity of X-rays reflected in the specular direction (reflected angle equal to incident angle). It has been shown that a reflection off a parabolic mirror followed by a reflection off a hyperbolic mirror can lead to the focusing of X-rays.
The ratio of reflected intensity to incident intensity is the X-ray reflectivity for the surface. If the interface is not perfectly sharp and smooth, the reflected intensity will deviate from that predicted by the law of Fresnel reflectivity. The deviations can then be analyzed to obtain the density profile of the interface normal to the surface. For films with multiple layers, X-ray reflectivity may show oscillations with wavelength, analogous to the Fabry-Pérot effect. These oscillations can be used to infer layer thicknesses and other properties.
Read more about this topic: X-ray Optics
Famous quotes containing the word reflection:
“Fanny was not there! How she would have enjoyed the scene.... I could not but think of her, and in spite of my efforts to prevent, the unbidden tear would flow. Alas! I cannot feel the satisfaction some appear to do in the reflection that her eyes beheld the scene from the other world.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (18221893)
“Water. Its sunny track in the plain; its splashing in the garden canal, the sound it makes when in its course it meets the mane of the grass; the diluted reflection of the sky together with the fleeting sight of the reeds; the Negresses fill their dripping gourds and their red clay containers; the song of the washerwomen; the gorged fields the tall crops ripening.”
—Jacques Roumain (19071945)
“Much of what passes for quality on British television is no more than a reflection of the narrow elite which controls it and has always thought that its tastes were synonymous with quality.”
—Rupert Murdoch (b. 1931)