Polarized neutron grazing angle birefrigent diffraction from magnetic stratified media

Polarized neutron diffraction in multilayers is considered in the framework of the Supermatrix formulation of the distorted wave burn approximation (DWBA). The general equations for the polarized neutron scattering cross sections are derived and illustrated by the example of diffraction from the regular ferromagnetic multilayered structure. It is shown that, due to the resonance enhancement of the neutron wave held inside the films, the intensity of birefrigent spin-flip and non-spin-flip diffraction is significantly amplified, if the wavelength is matched with the multilayers period, (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.