Simulations of off-specular scattering of polarized neutrons from laterally patterned magnetic multilayers

We put forward a new presentation of the theory of off-specular scattering of polarized neutrons from magnetic multilayers within the distorted wave Born approximation developed by one of the authors. In this presentation, a clear separation is made between (1) the structure factors, model dependent, and (2) the optical coefficients and the efficiencies of the polarizer and the analyzer, model independent. It therefore permits an easy plugging in of any particular model of structural and magnetic correlations. For a test, we show simulations of off-specular scattering from magnetic domains. in multilayers exhibiting anti-ferromagnetic coupling, a situation encountered in the literature. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.