Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 March 2019
A numerical procedure is described and demonstrated for determining z-profiles from measured τ-profiles of diffraction data such as may be obtained by grazing incidence x-ray diffraction (GIXD). The z-profile was approximated by a piece wise linear function and the problem of solving the integral equation for the z-profile was thus converted to one of solving a set of linear equations. With a sufficient number of the linear pieces, the z-pTofile could be accurately determined. The procedure and its sensitivity to data errors was tested with several arbitrarily chosen known functions. It was found that when errors were introduced into either the τ-profile or the sample thickness D the resulting z-profiles become oscillatory.