A discussion about inelastic surface scattering

A study is presented in which spin waves were measured in reflection geometry in a supermirror multilayer. The existence of spin waves is proven by the cut-off of spin wave scattering. By analogy with off-specular scattering it is worked out how perturbation theory has to be applied to inelastic surface scattering (ISS). Through interference effects mainly of a multilayer, but also of scattering in the total reflecting region, appreciable intensity can be gained so that we predict that more detailed studies of spin waves will become possible. The encoding of the angle and of the wavelength using Larmor precession will greatly help to separate inelastic scattering from other scattering contributions.