Single-order lamellar multilayer gratings

A major challenge in the soft x-ray (SXR) and eXtreme UltraViolet (XUV) spectral ranges is the ability to manipulate the incident radiation using optical elements. By patterning conventional multilayer mirrors with nanoscale structures, novel optical elements with a variety of optical properties can be obtained. In this work, the design, fabrication and characterization of Lamellar Multilayer Gratings (LMG) was investigated. Such LMGs are a particular form of the general class of Bragg-Fresnel optics which combine Fresnel optics with Bragg reflection to provide unique dispersive and focusing optics. In particular, LMGs can be used to improve the spectral resolution of x-ray fluorescence techniques. A Coupled Waves Approach (CWA) was derived to simulate the optical performance, in terms of resolution and reflectivity, of LMGs. This CWA allowed to study the physical principles behind LMGs and resulted in the identification of an optimal LMG operating regime. In this regime, the incident beam is reflected in a single diffraction order and is hence referred to as the singleorder regime. Such single-order LMGs were fabricated using UV-NanoImprint Lithography and Bosch Deep Reactive Ion Etching, a process chosen to enable rapid practical development. Single-order operation was experimentally demonstrated and showed an improvement in spectral resolution of a factor of 3.8 with regard to convenventional multilayer mirrors. Singe-order excitation of higher diffraction orders was also measured and analyzed. Single-order operation often requires multilayer stacks and grating structures that cannot be fabricated with sufficient accuracy using current technologies. As this invalidates the semi-infinite multilayer approximation, we investigated the optical performance of LMGs with finite multilayer stacks. We determined the ratio between the absorber thickness and bi-layer period of the multilayer stack can be used to further tailor LMG optical performance to maximize bandwidth reduction or minimize peak reflectivity loss. We also investigated various degradation processes that could limit the lifetime of LMGs, which is important for the applicability of such elements. Oxidation of tungsten and silicon as well as changes to the sidewall composition were clearly seen. However, SXR reflectivity remained stable to within measurement accuracy for an extended storage period of 18 months in a 1 atm air environment. The possibility of applying a capping layer on LMG structures to reduce degradation was also studied