ACNS 2020 Tutorial II: A Practical Approach to Fitting Neutron Reflectometry Data

Content and Objectives:

This tutorial will cover the practical aspects of fitting neutron reflectometry data, with a focus on applying advanced fitting software such as Refl1D, GenX, and Motofit to example datasets from recent topical work. In addition to a discussion of basic theory and introduction to the fitting software, attendees will be guided through fitting problems in polymers, biology, and magnetism by the experts who measured and took the data. A particular emphasis will be placed on identifying the information present in the data and using information theory approaches to maximize the efficiency and utility when designing neutron reflectometry experiment.

Schedule and Speakers:

0900-0945: "Introduction to Neutron Reflectometry and Refl1D", Brian Maranville, National Institute of Standards and Technology
0945-1030: "Webi: web application for reflectometry modeling", Mathieu Doucet, Oak Ridge National Loboratory
1030-1045: Coffee Break
1045-1130: John Ankner, "Highly Parameterized Fitting of Neutron Reflectometry from Polymer Films", Oak Ridge National Laboratory
1130 -1215: "Reflectometry from Lipid Bilayer Membranes and Protein Binding", David Hoogerheide, National Institute of Standards and Technology
1215-1315: Lunch Break
1315-1400: "Polarized Neutron Reflectometry for Designing Magnon Valve Devices", Patrick Quarterman, National Institute of Standards and Technology
1400-1445: "Bayesian inference in neutron and x-ray reflectometry analysis", Andrew McCluskey, Diamond Light Source
1445-1500: Coffee Break
1500-1545: "Progress and Development in Refl1D", Paul Kienzle, National Institute of Standards and Technology
1545-1630: "Co-refinement of X-ray and Neutron Reflectometry", Andrew Nelson, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation

Software and Installation Instructions:

The links below include instructions for installation of software relevant to the tutorial. In order to make the best use of this course, we recommend that attendees bring a laptop with this software already installed. In case of difficulty, please feel free to contact the organizers alexander.grutter [at] nist.gov (Alexander Grutter) and anknerjf [at] ornl.gov (John Ankner).

• Python (such as from  Python.org or Anaconda)
• Jupyter Notebook
• Refl1D