Comparison of thermal stability of Mo/Si multilayers with different crystallinities of Mo layers.

To investigate the thermal stability of Mo/Si multilayers with different initial crystallinities of Mo layers, two kinds of Mo/Si multilayers were deposited by DC magnetron sputtering and annealed at 300°C and 400°C. The period thickness compactions of multilayers with crystalized and quasi-amorphous Mo layers were 0.15 nm and 0.30 nm at 300°C, respectively, and the stronger the crystallinity, the lower the extreme ultraviolet reflectivity loss. At 400°C, the period thickness compactions of multilayers with crystalized and quasi-amorphous Mo layers were 1.25 nm and 1.04 nm, respectively. It was shown that multilayers with a crystalized Mo layer had better thermal stability at 300°C but were less stable at 400°C than multilayers with a quasi-amorphous Mo layer. These changes in stability at 300°C and 400°C were due to the significant transition of the crystalline structure. The transition of the crystal structure leads to increased surface roughness, more interdiffusion, and compound formation.

Comparative Study on Microstructure of Mo/Si Multilayers Deposited on Large Curved Mirror with and without the Shadow Mask.

The Mo/Si multilayer mirror has been widely used in EUV astronomy, lithography, microscopy and other fields because of its high reflectivity at the wavelength around 13.5 nm. During the fabrication of Mo/Si multilayers on large, curved mirrors, shadow mask was a common method to precisely control the period thickness distribution. To investigate the effect of shadow mask on the microstructure of Mo/Si multilayers, we deposited a set of Mo/Si multilayers with and without the shadow mask on a curved substrate with aperture of 200 mm by direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering in this work. Grazing incidence X-ray reflectivity (GIXR), diffuse scattering, atomic force microscope (AFM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to characterize the multilayer structure and the EUV reflectivity were measured at the National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) in China. By comparing the results, we found that the layer microstructure including interface width, surface roughness, layer crystallization and the reflectivity were barely affected by the mask and a high accuracy of the layer thickness gradient can be achieved.

Stability of Cr/C multilayer during synchrotron radiation exposure and thermal annealing.

The stability of Cr/C multilayer during irradiation or thermal annealing was investigated using grazing incidence X-ray reflectivity measurement, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, small-angle X-ray scattering analysis, and soft X-ray reflectivity measurement. One sample was irradiated with a white beam of synchrotron radiation and five other samples were annealed at various temperatures. The 18-h irradiation treatment caused local surface contaminants but did not affect the buried stacks. The annealing treatment resulted in increased reflectivity at approximately 1.2 keV, and the multilayer remained stable for temperature up to 700 °C. Thus, the Cr/C multilayers exhibited excellent stability during irradiation and thermal treatments and can be used for the mirrors and multilayer gratings of third-generation synchrotron radiation systems.

Soft X-ray varied-line-spacing gratings fabricated by near-field holography using an electron beam lithography-written phase mask.

A fabrication method comprising near-field holography (NFH) with an electron beam lithography (EBL)-written phase mask was developed to fabricate soft X-ray varied-line-spacing gratings (VLSGs). An EBL-written phase mask with an area of 52 mm × 30 mm and a central line density greater than 3000 lines mm-1 was used. The introduction of the EBL-written phase mask substantially simplified the NFH optics for pattern transfer. The characterization of the groove density distribution and diffraction efficiency of the fabricated VLSGs indicates that the EBL-NFH method is feasible and promising for achieving high-accuracy groove density distributions with corresponding image properties. Vertical stray light is suppressed in the soft X-ray spectral range.

Design of First-Order 121.6 nm Minus Filters.

The equivalent parameters function in Macleod software can be used to calculate the equivalent admittance and phase thickness of multilayers, even when the material is both absorbing and dispersive, and the incidence angle is non-zero. We utilized this software to design first-order 121.6 nm minus filters based on a lanthanum trifluoride (LaF3)/magnesium fluoride (MgF2) multilayer; a Gaussian-type target curve was also introduced into the design. Minus filters with bandwidths of 10 and 5 nm were obtained and had good visible light suppression and low side-lobe ripples. This designed filter will be fabricated for use in a Lyman-alpha coronagraph and imager installed in the Lyman-Alpha Solar Telescope, which will be launched by China in 2021.

Structure and extreme ultraviolet performance of Si/C multilayers deposited under different working pressures.

Narrow bandwidth Si/C multilayer mirrors are fabricated and characterized for the Z-pinch plasma diagnostic at a wavelength of 16.5 nm. To reduce the large stress of the multilayer and maintain a practical reflectivity, different working pressures, from 0.13 Pa to 0.52 Pa, are optimized during the deposition. The grazing incidence x-ray reflectometry (GIXR) measurement and the fitting results indicate that an interlayer was formed at the interfaces, while both the interlayer thickness and interface widths increase with larger working pressure. The surface roughness of the multilayers also increases from 0.13 nm at 0.13 Pa to 0.29 nm at 0.52 Pa, as revealed by the atomic force microscope (AFM) measurements. The multilayer stress decreases from -682 MPa to -384 MPa as the working pressure increases from 0.13 Pa to 0.52 Pa, respectively. The experimental extreme ultraviolet (EUV) reflectivity of the samples with 20 bilayers gradually decreased from 26.3% to 18.9% with increased working pressure. The bandwidth of the reflection peak remains similar for the different samples with a full width half-maximum (FWHM) value of around 0.87 nm. A maximum EUV reflectivity of 33.2% and a bandwidth of 0.64 nm were achieved by the sample with 50 bilayers fabricated under a working pressure of 0.13 Pa.

Optical and structural performance of the Al(1%wtSi)/Zr reflection multilayers in the 17-19nm region.

Two kinds of Al/Zr (Al(1%wtSi)/Zr and Al(Pure)/Zr) multilayers for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) optics were deposited on fluorine doped tin oxide coated glass by using direct-current magnetron sputtering technology. The comparison of the two systems shows that the Al(1%wtSi)/Zr multilayers have the lowest interfacial roughness and highest reflectivity. Based on the X-ray diffraction, the performance of the two systems is determined by the crystallization of Al layer. To fully understand the Al(1%wtSi)/Zr multilayer, we built up a two-layer model to fit situation of the AFM images, and simulate the grazing incident x-ray reflection-measurements of multilayers with various periods (N = 10, 40, 60, 80). Below 40 periods, the roughness components are lowered. After 40 periods, both surface and interfacial roughness increase with the period number, and decrease the reflectance. According to transmission electron microscope images, the model can represent the variable structure of the system.

Thermal stability of Mg/Co multilayer with B4C, Mo or Zr diffusion barrier layers.

The efficiency of B(4)C, Mo and Zr barrier layers to improve thermal stability of Mg/Co multilayer up to 400 °C is investigated. Multilayers were deposited by direct current magnetron sputtering and characterized using X-ray and extreme ultraviolet reflection. The results suggest that B(4)C barrier layer is not effective due to drastic diffusion at Mg-B(4)C interface. Although introducing Mo barriers improves the thermal stability from 200 to 300 °C, it increases the interface roughness and thus degrades the optical performances. On the contrary, Zr barriers can significantly increase the thermal stability of Mg/Co up to 400 °C without optical performance degradation. Thus, Mg/Zr/Co/Zr is suitable for EUV applications requiring both optimal optical performances and heat resistance.

SiC/W/Ir multilayer-coated grating for enhanced efficiency in 50-100 nm wavelength range in Seya-Namioka mount.

A broadband [SiC/W/Ir](2) multilayer coating was deposited onto a diffraction grating to enhance the grating efficiency in the 50-100 nm wavelength range in a Seya-Namioka mount. The holographic ion-beam etched grating had a laminar profile with 1200 lines/mm. The coating was designed by using the subquarterwave multilayer theory. The measurement results show that the efficiency in the -1st diffraction order is greater than 9.3% throughout the wavelength range of 50-100 nm, which is obviously higher than that of single-layer gratings with SiC, Ir, or Au coatings.

Vacuum-ultraviolet blazed silicon grating anisotropically etched by native-oxide mask.

We describe a simple and convenient method of controlling the profile of a blazed grating that consists of using a patterned native-oxide layer of off-cut silicon (111) wafers as the mask of anisotropic etching to maximize the smooth blaze facets of the desired blaze angle and to minimize the deficiencies of the groove apexes. With the blazed-grating profile well controlled by this technique, a 1200 g/mm blazed grating was fabricated that had a blaze angle of 5.0 degrees and smooth blaze facets of about 0.2 nm rms. It was measured to have blaze efficiency in the vacuum-ultraviolet wavelength region.

Broadband multilayer-coated normal incidence blazed grating with approximately 10% diffraction efficiency through the 13-16 nm wavelength region.

Diffraction gratings used in extreme UV are typically coated with periodic multilayer thin films. These coatings have a small bandwidth, thus leading to a narrow usable spectral region of multilayer gratings. Well-designed aperiodic multilayer coatings could provide high reflectivity over a much broader wavelength region, so they could broaden the usable spectral region of multilayer gratings. We designed and deposited an aperiodic Mo/Si multilayer coating onto a blazed grating substrate. At an incidence angle of 10 degrees, the -2nd-order diffraction efficiency of the multilayer grating is approximately 10% through the wavelength range of 13-16 nm.

High reflectivity multilayer for He-II radiation at 30.4 nm.

SiC/Mg and B(4)C/Mo/Si multilayers were designed for He-II radiation at 30.4 nm. These multilayers were prepared by use of a direct current magnetron sputtering system and measured at the National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, China. The measured reflectivities were 38.0% for the SiC/Mg multilayer at an incident angle of 12 deg and 32.5% for the B(4)C/Mo/Si multilayer at 5 deg, respectively. A dual-function multilayer mirror was also designed by use of the aperiodic SiC/Mg multilayer. Annealing experiments were performed to investigate the thermal stability of the SiC/Mg multilayer. The interface of the SiC/Mg multilayer before and after annealing was studied by electron-induced x-ray emission spectra, which evidences the absence of thermal reaction products at the interfaces after annealing.

High-efficiency multilayer-coated ion-beam-etched blazed grating in the extreme-ultraviolet wavelength region.

We describe a simple method to fabricate blazed gratings used in the extreme ultraviolet wavelength region. The method uses an argon and oxygen mixed-gas ion beam to directly etch the grating substrate through a rectangular profile photoresist grating mask. With this method the etched grating groove profile can be well controlled. An Mo/Si multilayer-coated specimen with a blaze angle of 1.9 degrees was fabricated and measured. At an incident angle of 10 degrees and a wavelength of 13.62 nm, the diffraction efficiency of the negative second order reaches 36.2%.