Unexpected x‐ray diffraction peaks have been observed in some thin film modulated structures in which each constituent element has a nonintegral number of atomic layers. The origin of these peaks has not been clearly identified. The positions and intensities of these peaks were analyzed by numerical calculation from a model superlattice. The results indicate that the positions of the anomalous peaks are caused by a new long range periodicity due to the nonintegral number of atomic layers of each constituent element and that the intensities of the anomalous peaks are determined by the interfacial structure between the two different kinds of atomic layers. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.