Measuring diffuse x-ray reflectivity from rough interfaces

This thesis studies the diffuse x-ray scattering from rough interfaces. We review the scaling hypothesis of the height difference correlation function of rough interfaces, and the relationship between the roughness and the specular reflectivity and diffuse scattering cross-section in the distorted wave Born approximation (DWBA). We study the properties of the position sensitive detector (PSD), particularly its dark counts and noise level. The conventional setup and off-plane scan setup are compared for their advantages and disadvantages. We use a polished silicon surface to exemplify the data processing. We find that the parameters which fit the detector scan data can fit all data from the specular reflectivity, the rocking scan and the offset scan very well. The polished silicon surface is well described by an exponential form of the height-height correlation function which satisfies the scaling hypothesis