The performance of reflectometers at continuous wave and pulsed-neutron sources

To quantify gains from time-of-flight (TOF) methods, identical reflectometers viewing a continuous wave (CW) neutron source and a variety of pulsed-neutron sources were simulated using a Monte Carlo technique. Reflectivity profiles obtained for a simple thin-film, reflecting sample were nearly identical in all simulations, and models fitted to the simulated data yielded parameters (film thickness, surface roughness, and scattering length density) that were equally accurate and precise in all cases. The simulations confirm the power of the TOF method and demonstrate that the performance of pulsed sources for reflectometry does not scale simply as the inverse duty factor of the source. In the case of long-pulse sources, the simulations suggest that pulse tails have little effect on results obtained from specular reflectometry and that maximum brightness of the neutron source should be the primary design criterion. (author) 2 figs., 2 tabs., 5 refs