Applicability of energy-theta mapping in resonant soft X-ray reflectometry to probe depth dependence of oxidation state and crystallographic environment in iron oxide multilayers

In the present paper we discuss applicability of the synchrotron method of resonant x-ray reflectometry to non-destructive depth profiling of multilayer heterostructures with low optical contrast between the sublayers. The two-dimensional mapping approach comprising evaluation and measurement of reflectance as a function of photon energy and grazing angle is shown to provide a convenient way to effectively utilize the enhancement of optical contrast between the sublayers that exists at the absorption edges of chemical elements due to particular spectral shape peculiarities related to oxidation state, crystallographic environment and magnetization. In the present study the evaluation of the resonant X-ray reflectivity maps is performed using a specially developed modeling and fitting software. Estimation of the photon energy / grazing angle combinations at which the reflectance is most sensitive to the minor changes in the physical properties of the sublayers is illustrated by the example of ferroic-on-semiconductor nanoscale heterostructures composed of nanoscale film of metallic iron oxidized from either top or bottom side. The subtle differences in resonant soft x-ray reflectance caused by variation of the oxide film thickness, oxidation state and crystallographic environment are discussed. The presented approach is applicable to a large class of heterostructures composed of sublayers that can be distinguished only by the differences in their near edge X-ray absorption fine structure.