We describe a compact soft x-ray reflectometer for in-house characterization of water-window multilayer optics. The instrument is based on a line-emitting, liquid-jet, laser-plasma source in combination with angular scanning of the studied multilayer optics. With a proper choice of target liquid and thin-film filters, one or a few lines of well-defined wavelength dominate the spectrum and multilayer periods are measured with an accuracy of 0.003 nm using a multi-line calibration procedure. Absolute reflectivity may also be estimated with the instrument. The typical measurement time is currently 10 min. Although the principles of the reflectometer may be used in the entire soft x-ray and extreme ultraviolet range, the current instrument is primarily directed towards normal-incidence multilayer optics for water-window x-ray microscopy, and is thus demonstrated on W/B4C multilayers for this wavelength range. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.

Cr/Sc multilayers have been grown on Si substrates using dc magnetron sputtering. The multilayers are intended as condenser mirrors in a soft x-ray microscope operating at the wavelength 3.374 nm. They were designed for normal reflection of the first and second orders, with multilayer periods of 1.692 and 3.381 nm, and layer thickness ratios of 0.471 and 0.237, respectively. At-wavelength soft-x-ray reflectivity measurements were carried out using a reflectometer with a compact soft-x-ray laser-plasma source. The multilayers were irradiated during growth with Ar ions, varying both in energy (9 to 113 eV) and flux, in order to stimulate the adatom mobility and improve the interface flatness. It was found that to obtain a maximum soft x-ray reflectivity with a low flux (Cr=0.76, Sc=2.5) of Ar ions a rather high energy of 53 eV was required. Such energy also caused intermixing of the layers. By the use of a solenoid surrounding the substrate, the arriving ion-to-metal flux ratio could be increased 10 times and the required ion energy could be decreased. A high flux (Cr=7.1, Sc=23.1) of low-energy (9 eV) Ar ions yielded the most favorable growth condition, limiting the intermixing with a subsistent good surface flatness. © 2002 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Cr/Sc multilayer X-ray mirrors intended for normal incidence reflection in the water window wavelength range, ?=[2.4-4.4nm], have been grown by ion-assisted sputter deposition and characterized using soft and hard X-ray reflectivity. By extracting low-energy ions, with energies, Eion, ranging from 9 to 113eV and with ion-to-metal flux ratios, F, between 0.76 and 23.1, from the sputtering plasma to the growing film, the nano-structure of the multilayer interfaces could be modified. A significantly increased soft X-ray reflectivity, using ?=3.374nm, for Cr/Sc multilayers with layer thicknesses in the range 0.4-2.8nm, was obtained when high ion-to-metal flux ratios, FCr=7.1 and FSc=23.1, and low energy ions, Eion=9eV, were used. An experimental reflectivity of 5.5% was obtained at 76° for a multilayer with 400 bi-layers. Simulations of the reflectivity data showed that the interface widths are <0.425nm. It could be concluded that roughness of low spatial frequency is reduced at lower ion energies than the high spatial frequency which was eliminated at the expense of intermixing at the interfaces at higher ion energies. The predicted performance of normal incidence multilayer mirrors grown at optimum conditions and designed for ?=3.374 and 3.115nm indicates possible reflectivities of 6.5% and 14%, respectively. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cr/Sc multilayer mirrors, synthesized by ion-assisted magnetron sputter deposition, are proved to have a high near-normal reflectivity of R = 14.5% at a grazing angle of 87.5degrees measured at the wavelength A = 3.11 nm, which is an improvement of more than 31% compared with previously published results. Elastic recoil detection analyses show that the mirrors contained as much as 15 at. % of N and traces of C and O. Soft x-ray reflectivity simulations reveal interface widths of sigma = 0.34 nm and an exceptionally small layer thickness drift of similar to1.6 X 10(-5) nm/multilayer period throughout the stack. Simulations show that a reflectivity of R = 25.6% is attainable if impurities and layer thickness drift can be eliminated. The abrupt interfaces are achieved with ion assistance with a low ion energy of 24 eV and high ion-to-metal flux ratios of 7.1 and 23.1 during Cr and Se sputter deposition, respectively. In addition, a near-normal incidence reflectivity of 5.5% for the C VI emission line (lambda = 3.374 nm) from a laser plasma source was verified. (C) 2003 Optical Society of America.

Low-energy ion-assisted magnetron sputter deposition has been used for the synthesis of highly reflective Ni/V multilayer soft X-ray mirrors. A low ion energy and a high ion-to-metal flux ratio were employed in order to stimulate the adatom mobility while minimizing ion-induced intermixing at the interfaces. An analytic model, based on the binary collision approximation, was used in order to gain insight into low-energy ion-surface interactions as a function of ion energy and ion-to-metal flux ratio. The model predicted a favorable region in the ion energy-flux parameter space where only surface atomic displacements are stimulated during growth of Ni and V for multilayers. For a series of Ni/V multilayer mirrors with multilayer periods about Λ = 1.2 nm, grown with a continuous ion assistance using energies in the range 7-36 eV and with ion-to-metal flux ratios ΦNi = 4.7 and ΦV=20.9, specular and diffuse X-ray scattering analyses revealed that ion energies of ∼27-31 eV produced the best trade-off between reduced interfacial roughness and intermixing. However, it was also concluded that an interface mixing of about ± 1 atomic distance is unavoidable when a continuous flux of assisting ions is used. To overcome this limitation, a sophisticated interface engineering technique was employed, where the first 0.3 nm of each layer was grown with a high-flux low-energy ion assistance and the remaining part was grown with a slightly higher ion energy. This method was demonstrated to largely eliminate the intermixing while maintaining the smoothening effect of ion assistance. Two Ni/V multilayer soft X-ray mirror structures, one with 500 periods designed for near-normal incidence and one 150 periods reflecting polarizer at the Brewster angle, were grown utilizing the interface engineering concept. Both the near-normal incidence reflectivity as well as polarizability were improved by a factor of 2 as compared to previously reported data for an X-ray energy of E = 511 eV. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.