New Japanese community for advanced X-ray and neutron reflectometry

The Japan Society of Applied Physics (JSAP) recently approved the launch of a new professional group for X-ray and neutron analysis on surfaces and 'buried' interfaces. This is significant in that the new group will bring together those who are currently working with X-ray and neutron reflectometry or those who are simply interested in these subjects. So far in Japan, there have been very few meetings to discuss scientific problems in this area despite growing demand. There also exists a strong demand to plan and build beamlines dedicated to reflectometry and related methods at synchrotron radiation (Photon Factory and SPring-8) and neutron facilities (J-PARC to be started in 2008). The group will discuss applications with respect to a variety of materials, i.e., semiconductors, metals, ceramics, polymers, magnetic materials, and multilayers. It is of key importance to extend the technique in order to devise solutions for difficult problems in realistic specimens --. in particular, analysis of specific small areas and/or unstable systems that need to be measured in a very short time. The JSAP has an English-language Web page: http://www.jsap.or.jp/english/index.html