Paper is published in Optics Express
A 10,000 groove/mm multilayer coated grating for EUV spectroscopy
D. L. Voronov, E.H. Anderson, R. Cambie, S. Cabrini, S. D. Dhuey, L. I. Goray, E. M. Gullikson, F. Salmassi, T. Warwick, V. V. Yashchuk, and H. A. Padmore
Ultra-high spectral resolution in the EUV and soft x-ray energy ranges requires the use of very high line density gratings with optimal design resulting in use of a Blazed Multilayer Grating (BMG) structure. Here we demonstrate the production of near-atomically perfect Si blazed substrates with an ultra-high groove density (10,000 l/mm) together with the measured and theoretical performance of an Al/Zr multilayer coating on the grating. A 1st order absolute efficiency of 13% and 24.6% was achieved at incidence angles of 11° and 36° respectively. Cross-sectional TEM shows the effect of smoothing caused by the surface mobility of deposited atoms and we correlate this effect with a reduction in peak diffraction efficiency. This work shows the high performance that can be achieved with BMGs based on small-period anisotropic etched Si substrates, but also the constraints imposed by the surface mobility of deposited species. OCIS codes: codes: (050.1950) Diffraction gratings; (340.7480) X-rays, soft x-rays, extreme ultraviolet.
© 2010 Optical Society of America.