Beam Angular Spread in Specular Simulations

This example demonstrates beam angular spread effects in reflectivity computations. It also offers a comparison with data generated using another well known code: GenX. Further information about reflectometry simulations can be found in the Reflectometry Simulation Tutorial.

The observed reflectometry signal can be affected either by a spread in the beam wavelength or in the incident angle.

Scattering intensity

In this example, a Gaussian distribution is used to spread the incident angle, with a standard deviation of $\sigma_{\alpha} = 0.01^{\circ}$.

Running the example

This example requires the reference data file testdata/specular/genx_angular_divergence.dat.gz from the BornAgain repository.

The environment variable BA_DATA_DIR must point to the testdata/ directory. From the build directory, run:

BA_DATA_DIR=../testdata python3 ../auto/Examples/specular/VsGenx.py
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#!/usr/bin/env python3
# /// script
# requires-python = ">=3.10"
# dependencies = ["bornagain>=25,<26"]
# ///
"""
Reflectivity of a multilayer, taking into account beam angular divergence
and beam footprint correction, simulated with BornAgain and GenX.
"""
import numpy as np, os, sys
import bornagain as ba
ba.require_versions("bornagain>=25,<26")
from bornagain import angstrom, ba_io, ba_plot as bp, deg, nm

# input parameters
wavelength = 1.54*angstrom
beam_sample_ratio = 0.01  # beam-to-sample size ratio

def reference_data(filename):
    """
    Loads and returns reference data from GenX simulation
    """
    ax_values, data = np.loadtxt(filename,
                                      usecols=(0, 1),
                                      skiprows=3,
                                      unpack=True)

    # translate axis values from double incident angle to incident angle
    ax_values *= 0.5

    return ax_values, data


def get_sample():
    """
    Twenty alternating Ti and Ni layers on a silicon substrate.
    """
    ambient_mat = ba.Vacuum()
    ti_mat = ba.SLDMaterial("Ti", (0.05, 0.62, 0.55), -1.9493e-6, 0)
    ni_mat = ba.SLDMaterial("Ni", (0.93, 0.48, 0.14), 9.4245e-6, 0)
    substrate_mat = ba.SLDMaterial(
        "SiSubstrate", (0.28, 0.57, 0.82), 2.0704e-6, 0)

    stack = ba.LayerStack(10)
    stack.addLayer(ba.Layer(ti_mat, 3*nm))
    stack.addLayer(ba.Layer(ni_mat, 7*nm))

    sample = ba.Sample()
    sample.addLayer(ba.Layer(ambient_mat))
    sample.addStack(stack)
    sample.addLayer(ba.Layer(substrate_mat))
    return sample


def get_simulation(sample, **kwargs):
    """
    A specular simulation with beam and detector defined.
    """
    n = 500
    footprint = ba.FootprintSquare(beam_sample_ratio)
    alpha_distr = ba.DistributionGaussian(0, 0.01 * deg, 25, 3.)

    # scan starts high enough that all divergence samples stay above the horizon
    scan = ba.AlphaScan(n, 0.04*deg, 2*deg)
    scan.setWavelength(1.54*angstrom)
    scan.setFootprint(footprint)
    scan.setGrazingAngleDistribution(alpha_distr)

    return ba.SpecularSimulation(scan, sample)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    datadir = ba_io.data_dir()
    data_fname = os.path.join(datadir, "specular/genx_angular_divergence.dat.gz")
    print(f"Loading GenX reference data from {data_fname}")
    genx_axis, genx_values = reference_data(data_fname)

    bp.plt.yscale('log')
    bp.plt.plot(genx_axis, genx_values, 'ko', markevery=300)

    sample = get_sample()
    ba.showSample3D(sample, sample_size=120*nm, seed=0)
    simulation = get_simulation(sample)
    result = simulation.simulate()
    bp.plot_datafield(result)
    bp.plt.legend(['GenX', 'BornAgain'], loc='upper right')
    bp.plt.show()
auto/Examples/specular/VsGenx.py