Spin-resolved off-specular neutron scattering maps from magnetic multilayers using a polarized 3He gas spin filter

We report on the application of the polarized He-3 gas spin filter technique for the measurement of spin-polarized diffuse neutron reflectivity with spin analysis. The spin filter together with a one-dimensional position-sensitive detector enables the simultaneous investigation of sections in reciprocal space while exploiting spin sensitivity. An example of diffuse neutron scattering from a Fe/Cr superlattice demonstrates the potential of the method. In addition we present a first step towards the interpretation of diffuse scattering from magnetic multilayers by exploiting the supermatrix formalism. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.