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Observation of the complete rupture of a buried polymer layer by off-specular neutron reflectometry

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posted on 2009-05-22, 15:29 authored by J.P. de Silva, Simon MartinSimon Martin, R. Cubitt, M. Geoghegan
We have used off-specular neutron reflectometry to study the rupture of a thin, deuterated polystyrene layer confined between a silicon substrate and a thick poly(methyl methacrylate) upper layer. After total rupture of the buried layer, the resulting roughness at the interface that controls the total reflection edge gives rise to Yoneda off-specular scattering. This hypothesis is confirmed by specular reflectivity data that can be fitted to an effective error function subsequent to the rupture of the buried layer. The observed increase in the Yoneda peak intensities, integrated along the path of constant momentum transfer qz, can be directly related to the formation of an interdigitated structure upon rupture of the buried layer. A distorted-wave Born approximation is used to quantitatively simulate the form of the off-specular data in terms of an equivalent error function, with fitting parameters in good agreement with the physical properties of the samples and key experimental results.

History

School

  • Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering

Department

  • Materials

Citation

DE SILVA, J.P. ... et al, 2009. Observation of the complete rupture of a buried polymer layer by off-specular neutron reflectometry. EPL, 86, 36005

Publisher

© Institute of Physics

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publication date

2009

Notes

This article was published in the journal EPL [© Institute of Physics] and the definitive version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/86/36005

ISSN

0295-5075;1286-4854

Language

  • en

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