Soft x-ray laser beamline for surface processing and damage studies.

We have developed a soft x-ray laser (SXRL) beamline equipped with an intensity monitor dedicated to ablation study such as surface processing and damage formation. The SXRL beam having a wavelength of 13.9 nm, pulse width of 7 ps, and pulse energy of around 200 nJ is generated from Ag plasma mediums using an oscillator-amplifier configuration. The SXRL beam is focused onto the sample surface by the Mo/Si multilayer coated spherical mirror. To get the correct irradiation energy/fluence, an intensity monitor composed of a Mo/Si multilayer beam splitter and an x-ray charge-coupled device camera has been installed in the beamline. The Mo/Si multilayer beam splitter has a large polarization dependence in the reflectivity around the incident angle of 45°. However, by evaluating the relationship between reflectivity and transmittance of the beam splitter appropriately, the irradiation energy onto the sample surface can be derived from the energy acquired by the intensity monitor. This SXRL beamline is available to not only the ablation phenomena but also the performance evaluation of soft x-ray optics and resists.

Wide-range narrowband multilayer mirror for selecting a single-order harmonic in the photon energy range of 40-70 eV.

An experimental demonstration of a wide-range narrowband multilayer mirror for selecting a single-order high-harmonic (HH) beam from multiple-order harmonics in the photon energy range between 40 eV and 70 eV was carried out. This extreme ultraviolet (XUV) mirror, based on a pair of Zr and Al0.7Si0.3 multilayers, has a reflectivity of 20-35% and contrast of more than 7 with respect to neighboring HHs at angles of incidence from 10 to 56.9 degrees, assuming HHs pumped at 1.55 eV. Thus, specific single-order harmonic beams can be arbitrarily selected from multiple-order harmonics in this photo energy range. In addition, the dispersion for input pulses of the order of 1 fs is negligible. This simple-to-align optical component is useful for the many various applications in physics, chemistry and biology that use ultrafast monochromatic HH beams.

Performance of a ruthenium beam separator used to separate soft x rays from light generated by a high-order harmonic light source.

We describe the design and fabrication of a ruthenium beam separator used to simultaneously attenuate infrared light and reflect soft x rays. Measurements in the infrared and soft x-ray regions showed the beam separator to have a reflectivity of 50%-85% in the wavelength region from 6 to 10 nm at a grazing incidence angle of 7.5 deg and 4.3% at 800 nm and the same angle of grazing incidence, indicating that the amount of attenuation is 0.05-0.09. These results show that this beam separator could provide an effective means for separating IR light from soft x rays in light generated by high-order harmonic generation sources.

A proposal for a collecting mirror assembly for large divergence x-ray sources.

We propose a new type of collecting mirror assembly (CMA) for x rays, which will enable us to build a powerful optical system for collecting x rays from large divergence sources. The CMA consists of several mirror sections connected in series. The angle of each section is designed so that the x rays reflected from it are parallel to the x rays directly incident on the following sections. A simplified CMA structure is designed and applied to the Al-Kα emission line. It is estimated that by using the CMA the number of x rays detected could be increased by a factor of about 2.5.

An in situ method using a Y-type optical fiber for measuring the thickness of the carbon contamination layer on the surface of an extreme ultraviolet mirror.

A new method for in situ measurement of the thickness of the carbon contamination layer on the surface of an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) mirror is proposed. This measurement is important in order to determine the most effective timing with which the mirror should be cleaned. The method we propose uses a Y-type optical fiber to measure the reflectivity profile over the wavelength range from 200 nm to 800 nm from the surface of the mirror; the reflectivity profile is normalized by the reflectivity at 800 nm wavelength. This is because the change in reflectivity is more sensitive to the carbon layer thickness in the short wavelength region rather than in the long wavelength region. The method was demonstrated using carbon/ruthenium bilayer samples deposited on commercial Si wafers. The results show that the proposed method can successfully estimate the thickness of the carbon layer and thus has the potential to measure the thickness of a thin carbon layer on an EUV mirror.

Broadband extreme ultraviolet multilayer mirror for supercontinuum light at a photon energy of 35-65 eV.

We have developed a broadband multilayer mirror for photon energies between 35 and 65 eV. This extreme ultraviolet (EUV) mirror has an almost flat reflectivity profile at normal incidence, and the average reflectivity is 8%. The bandwidth of this mirror is 30 eV centered around 50 eV, 1.5 times broader than conventional multilayer mirrors in this energy region. This new mirror can be used in a variety of applications using supercontinuum EUV light sources including attosecond metrology.

Development of multilayer laminar-type diffraction gratings to achieve high diffraction efficiencies in the 1-8 keV energy region.

W/C and Co/SiO(2) multilayer gratings have been fabricated by depositing a multilayer coating on the surface of laminar-type holographic master gratings. The diffraction efficiency was measured by reflectometers in the energy region of 0.6-8.0 keV at synchrotron radiation facilities as well as with an x-ray diffractometer at 8.05 keV. The Co/SiO(2) and W/C multilayer gratings showed peak diffraction efficiencies of 0.47 and 0.38 at 6.0 and 8.0 keV, respectively. To our knowledge, the peak efficiency of the W/C multilayer grating is the highest measured with hard x rays. The diffraction efficiency of the Co/SiO(2) multilayer gratings was higher than that of the W/C multilayer grating in the energy range of 2.5-6.0 keV. However, it decreased significantly in the energy above the K absorption edge of Co (7.71 keV). For the Co/SiO(2) multilayer grating, the measured diffraction efficiencies agreed with the calculated curves assuming a rms roughness of approximately 1 nm.