Sprecher
Beschreibung
Interactions between soft interfaces occur in our daily life and in numerous wet technological contexts. They also influence the functions of biological entities like membranes. Understanding the character of such interactions often requires detailed insights into the structure of the interfaces and their response to the interaction. Neutron reflectometry is an ideal tool for the characterization of interfaces in close proximity. The experiments and the subsequent analysis benefit from controlled interaction conditions with homogeneous surface separations over large areas. In practice, however, one is often confronted with scenarios involving lateral heterogeneities or scenarios in which the interaction distance varies strongly with the surface chemistry or with time. Interaction scenarios or evaporating films with surface separations on the order of several micrometers pose a particular modeling challenge. We use various strategies to extract structural information from thin-film systems with such challenging characteristics.
