Influence of an amorphous layer on the polarization characteristics of X-ray radiation under grazing geometry diffraction

The transformation of X-ray polarization under the grazing incidence diffraction on crystals with an amorphous surface film is studied. The dependence of the degree of circular polarization of the reflected waves on the film parameters is investigated. The results of numerical calculations are given for reflection of CuKα-radiation on (220) planes of a germanium single crystal with amorphous films of different thicknesses. It is shown that at a certain thickness of the amorphous layer it is possible to transform incident linearly polarized radiation into circularly polarized one with degree of circular polarization close to unity. [Russian Text Ignored]