Neutron Reflectometry performed on an Iridium Sample using the Multi-Blade Detector

Abstract: The current thesis presents the results from a neutron reflectometry analysis performed on data collected at ISIS in Rutherford Appleton Laboratories, England, in October 2017. The CRISP instrument was used and the Multi-Blade incorporated as a detector. This was the first attempt ever to use the Multi-Blade in this type of measurement. The Multi-Blade is a cold and thermal neutron detector currently in the prototype stage. It will eventually be used for reflectometry measurements at the European Spallation Source. The measurement was performed on a known ~550 Å thick Iridium layer deposited on a Silicon substrate. In the thesis, the collected raw data were processed to form candidate neutron events. This was done by data reduction followed by clustering. A fitting procedure was then performed on the created candidate events. From this the thickness of the Iridium sample was correctly identified, with a fitting parameter found to be 550 Å +/- 2.75 Å. This demonstrates the capabilities of the Multi-Blade detector to accurately identify thin samples. In the outlook it is discussed how to further increase the accuracy of this result. This can be done by utilizing the high spatial resolution of the Multi-Blade detector.