Determination of atomic density profiles in synthetic multilayers by anomalous x-ray diffraction

We report a simple and nondestructive method to determine directly the spatial profiles of the constituent elements in a synthetic multilayered material with a resolution of 10--20 A. This has been accomplished by measuring the x-ray diffraction Bragg peak intensities over a large range of energies, and interpreting these data using a dynamical theory to deduce the first few Fourier coefficients of the relevant spatial profiles. We present initial results for Ti-Si multilayer samples grown by thermal deposition. These results demonstrate extensive interdiffusion of the silicon into the titanium layers, even without annealing