Resonant x-ray reflectivity from a bromine-labeled fatty acid Langmuir monolayer

Resonant x-ray reflectivity exploits the energy dependence of atomic scattering factors to locate resonant atoms within the electron density distribution of thin films. We apply the technique to a monolayer of bromo-stearic acid at the air/water interface. The data collection protocol employed cycles through several energies in the vicinity of the bromine K absorption edge and verifies that the energy dependencies observed are indeed resonant effects. The analysis specifies the location of the Br atom with sub-angstrom precision and must consider both the real and imaginary parts of the changes in the scattering factor to be consistent with the known structure and stoichiometry of this test case.