and limited sample size due to which beam footprint at low angles may exceed the sample size, thus reducing reflectivity.

Several fitting algorithms have been attempted for X-ray reflectivity, some of which find a local optimum instead of the global optimum. The Levenberg-Marquardt method finds a local optimum. Due to the curve having many interference fringes, it finds incorrect layer thicknesses unless the initial guess is extraordinarily good. The derivative-free simplex method