Development of Horizontal Type Neutron Reflectometer SOFIA in J-PARC

Abstract

Neutron reflectometry (NR) is one of the powerful tools to investigate surface and interfacial structures of materials in the spatial range from nm to sub-μm. Because hydrogen and deuterium atoms have different scattering length for neutrons, NR can distinguish deuterated materials from hydrogenated ones in the mixture of soft-condensed matters, such as polymer blends, bio-mimic membranes, and so on. Additionally, in-situ NR measurements of a solid/liquid interface can be easily realized because neutron can illuminate the interface through the substrate owing to the high transmissibility. In J-PARC/MLF, a horizontal type reflectometer SOFIA at BL16 has been developed. In this paper, a design of the systems, data acquisition and reduction software, sample environments, and future plans to upgrade the SOFIA reflectometer are introduced.