Probing scatterred neutrons at a surface at incident angle smaller than the critical angle of total reflection, the penetration depth for the neutrons can be tuned to several nm depth at the surface. The scattered neutrons than probe the in-plane structure at the surface. The method can be applied to study e.g. surface effects in (anti)ferromagnetic crystals or thin layers, lateral arrangements of dots or clusters at surfaces or lateral ordering in polymer layers.