X-ray reflection from thin multilayers: symmetric patterns

A series of experiments on x-ray reflection from thin multilayers and films on a silicon wafer were carried out. The x-ray source and detector were fixed and the glancing angle was changed by sample stage rotation. The use of a Geiger-Muller counter allowed bizarre symmetric patterns to be obtained in the reflected x-ray intensity. The origin of these patterns is not clear at the present stage of the investigation. To perform a preliminary analysis of the x-ray reflection from multilayers, the Microsoft Access database has been developed. Copyright (C) 2003 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.