Surface and Interface Properties of Co/Pd Thin Films Studied by Grazing Incidence Small Angle X-ray Scattering Method

X-ray reflectivity has become an important tool in studying the structure and organization of materials that are grown as thin films at nano scales. In thin film materials research, the trend is to design solid films of increasing complexity having specific properties for technical applications. The perfection of layered super-structures is defined both by the quality of the interfaces and by the reproducibility with which one can achieve the deposition of the layers. In particular, the roughness of the interfaces is of crucial importance for many technological applications. In this paper, the technique of specular x-ray reflectivity will be reviewed and it will be shown through various examples how the technique can be used to determine the thickness of the individual layers and the roughness of the interfaces in Co/Pd multi layers. The measurement of diffuse x-ray scattering will be presented as a good way to analyse the correlation of interfacial roughness between successive layers.