Method · XRR
X-ray reflectivity in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany
Model-based thickness, electron density and interface roughness of thin layers on sufficiently flat, smooth samples. What it answers, what it cannot establish on its own, what a laboratory will ask, and which Dutch, Belgian and German facilities publish it — named, with their sources.
What it answers
- How thick is each layer of a thin-film stack, from about a nanometre to a few hundred nanometres?
- What are the layer densities and interface roughnesses?
- Did a deposition or annealing step change thickness or density?
What it cannot establish alone
- A unique layer structure from every reflectivity curve; thickness, density and roughness can be correlated in the fitted model.
- Chemical identity or crystal phase by itself. Converting electron density to mass density requires composition assumptions.
- Reliable layer parameters when roughness, curvature, weak interface contrast or thickness variation obscure the reflectivity features.
Before you contact a laboratory
What a laboratory will ask.
A laboratory can say whether it can help only when these are known. Unknowns are fine; say so.
- Substrate, expected layer materials, layer order and approximate thicknesses.
- Sample dimensions, flatness, roughness and the size of the uniform coated area.
- Whether you need thickness only or also density and roughness, and any independent measurements to constrain the model.
- Number of samples and measurement positions, including any reference sample.
A question a laboratory can answer
We deposit a nominal 40 nm silicon nitride film on 25 mm silicon wafers. We want thickness, density and roughness for three wafers from different runs, fitted with a two-layer model.
Each laboratory below can turn these into an editable enquiry draft. Go to the laboratories
Laboratory evidence · XRR
Laboratories that publish XRR
Named facilities whose official pages describe XRR, each with its source, the dates behind it and what is still unconfirmed. Up to 12 per search, ordered by review level and then alphabetically — not ranked by suitability.
Start typing to see the cities the catalogue holds for this method. The city must match exactly: “Ede” does not find Enschede, and there is no distance search. Changing the method keeps your country and city.
An independent directory, not a booking service. Laboratories are listed from their own public pages. None has endorsed Argentum Field, paid for its position or seen this search.
For every laboratory below, whether it can accept your sample, external work or a booking — and its current configuration, availability, price and turnaround — needs the laboratory’s own confirmation. Cards show only what differs from this.
How to read a result
- Access route
- How the laboratory’s own page says outside users can work with it, read from that page by an AI assessment. It does not mean your request will be accepted.
- Not yet assessed
- Nobody has read the practical details from the source yet. Open the source; the access route and sample limits are unknown, not absent.
- Public source
- Extracted from an official page. A research lead; nobody has checked it.
- AI-normalised
- Structured by a pipeline from an official page, with its source and retrieval date. Still a lead.
- Human reviewed
- A named reviewer confirmed the cited source supports this method. The laboratory has not agreed to anything.
- Dates
- Under “Evidence and dates” on each card. Retrieved: when the catalogue recorded the source. Assessed: when practical text was read. Source updated: the date the page itself shows. None is a check that the instrument runs today.
- Attribution
- A card says so when a source ties the capability to a wider institution rather than this laboratory. That does not establish who owns the instrument.
More on the levels: what each evidence level means and never means.
Select two or three laboratories to compare their evidence and what remains unknown.
CoCooN (Conformal Coating of Nanomaterials)
Ghent · Belgium · XRR
- Access
- Not yet assessed — open the source for access and sample limits
Evidence and dates
- Catalogue evidence
- AI-normalised public source
- Dates
- Catalogue retrieved 2026-09-27
- Attribution
- Local attribution in catalogue evidence
Practical details have not yet received a claim-specific source assessment.
Catalogue record
As recorded. A recorded title is catalogue metadata, not a statement that the page supports XRR. Practical details are AI source assessments of indexed official text; an assessment date is not a fresh fetch or a check that the instrument operates.
- Recorded title
- Public evidence (Benelux R4 harvest)
- Catalogue URL
- https://www.ugent.be/we/solidstatesciences/cocoon/en/research/infrastructure (opens in a new tab)
- Retrieved
- 2026-09-27
- Reviewed
- Not recorded
IUMAT Analytical Microscopy
Diepenbeek · Belgium · XRR
- Access
- Not yet assessed — open the source for access and sample limits
Evidence and dates
- Catalogue evidence
- AI-normalised public source
- Dates
- Catalogue retrieved 2026-09-23
- Attribution
- Local attribution in catalogue evidence
Practical details have not yet received a claim-specific source assessment.
Catalogue record
As recorded. A recorded title is catalogue metadata, not a statement that the page supports XRR. Practical details are AI source assessments of indexed official text; an assessment date is not a fresh fetch or a check that the instrument operates.
- Recorded title
- Public evidence (Belgium R1 review)
- Catalogue URL
- https://www.uhasselt.be/nl/instituten/iumat/materiaalanalyse/analytische-microscopie (opens in a new tab)
- Retrieved
- 2026-09-23
- Reviewed
- Not recorded
KU Leuven X-ray Core
Leuven · Belgium · XRR
- Access
- Not yet assessed — open the source for access and sample limits
- Institution/shared attribution; instrument ownership unconfirmed
Evidence and dates
- Catalogue evidence
- AI-normalised public source
- Dates
- Catalogue retrieved 2026-09-23
- Attribution
- Institution/shared attribution; instrument ownership unconfirmed
Practical details have not yet received a claim-specific source assessment.
Catalogue record
As recorded. A recorded title is catalogue metadata, not a statement that the page supports XRR. Practical details are AI source assessments of indexed official text; an assessment date is not a fresh fetch or a check that the instrument operates.
- Recorded title
- Public evidence (Belgium R1 review)
- Catalogue URL
- https://limni.kuleuven.be/expertise-facilities/analytical-techniques/xrd (opens in a new tab)
- Retrieved
- 2026-09-23
- Reviewed
- Not recorded
Not sure XRR answers your question? Describe your sample and question and the first answer suggests a method and leads, without an account.
Often combined with
- Atomic force microscopyNanoscale surface topography and roughness with probe-mode-dependent property mapping.
- X-ray diffractionCrystalline phase, structure, texture, and strain by X-ray diffraction.
Problems where it helps
- Thin-film thickness: choosing a measurementEllipsometry, X-ray reflectivity or a cross-section? How film type, thickness range and stack decide the measurement, and what to prepare.