Development of neutron reflectometry of surface layers of liquid systems

In order to develop the methods of neutron and X-ray reflectometries for the study of surface layers of liquid systems, a method of increasing the sensitivity of the reflectometric experiment to the appearance and evolution of near-surface layers is proposed. Therefore, Ni/Ti multilayered heterostructures are tested regarding for the practical applicability of the quasi-homogeneous approach with varying effective scattering length density of thin (thickness <100 nm) metal films in X-ray reflectometry experiments on the example of electrochemical interfaces. The structures with extremely low thickness of the Ni/Ti bilayer with different thickness ratios of Ni- and Ti-sublayers are synthesized by magnetron sputtering. Specular reflectivities of X-rays from the heterostructures are analyzed to conclude about the limits of the quasi-homogeneous approximation. (author)