Interface morphology of Mo/Si multilayer systems with varying Mo layer thickness studied by EUV diffuse scattering.

We investigate the influence of the Mo-layer thickness on the EUV reflectance of Mo/Si mirrors with a set of unpolished and interface-polished Mo/Si/C multilayer mirrors. The Mo-layer thickness is varied in the range from 1.7 nm to 3.05 nm. We use a novel combination of specular and diffuse intensity measurements to determine the interface roughness throughout the multilayer stack and do not rely on scanning probe measurements at the surface only. The combination of EUV and X-ray reflectivity measurements and near-normal incidence EUV diffuse scattering allows to reconstruct the Mo layer thicknesses and to determine the interface roughness power spectral density. The data analysis is conducted by applying a matrix method for the specular reflection and the distorted-wave Born approximation for diffuse scattering. We introduce the Markov-chain Monte Carlo method into the field in order to determine the respective confidence intervals for all reconstructed parameters. We unambiguously detect a threshold thickness for Mo in both sample sets where the specular reflectance goes through a local minimum correlated with a distinct increase in diffuse scatter. We attribute that to the known appearance of an amorphous-to-crystallization transition at a certain thickness threshold which is altered in our sample system by the polishing.

Multiparameter characterization of subnanometre Cr/Sc multilayers based on complementary measurements.

Cr/Sc multilayer systems can be used as near-normal incidence mirrors for the water window spectral range. It is shown that a detailed characterization of these multilayer systems with 400 bilayers of Cr and Sc, each with individual layer thicknesses <1 nm, is attainable by the combination of several analytical techniques. EUV and X-ray reflectance measurements, resonant EUV reflectance across the Sc L edge, and X-ray standing wave fluorescence measurements were used. The parameters of the multilayer model were determined via a particle-swarm optimizer and validated using a Markov chain Monte Carlo maximum-likelihood approach. For the determination of the interface roughness, diffuse scattering measurements were conducted.

Extended asymmetric-cut multilayer X-ray gratings.

The fabrication and characterization of a large-area high-dispersion blazed grating for soft X-rays based on an asymmetric-cut multilayer structure is reported. An asymmetric-cut multilayer structure acts as a perfect blazed grating of high efficiency that exhibits a single diffracted order, as described by dynamical diffraction throughout the depth of the layered structure. The maximum number of grating periods created by cutting a multilayer deposited on a flat substrate is equal to the number of layers deposited, which limits the size of the grating. The size limitation was overcome by depositing the multilayer onto a substrate which itself is a coarse blazed grating and then polish it flat to reveal the uniformly spaced layers of the multilayer. The number of deposited layers required is such that the multilayer thickness exceeds the step height of the substrate structure. The method is demonstrated by fabricating a 27,060 line pairs per mm blazed grating (36.95 nm period) that is repeated every 3,200 periods by the 120-µm period substrate structure. This preparation technique also relaxes the requirements on stress control and interface roughness of the multilayer film. The dispersion and efficiency of the grating is demonstrated for soft X-rays of 13.2 nm wavelength.

Role of dynamic effects in the characterization of multilayers by means of power spectral density.

In this paper, we present measurements of angle- and wavelength-resolved diffuse scattering of EUV radiation on a Mo/Si multilayer. Our sample is optimized for high reflectivity at 13.5 nm wavelength near-normal incidence. We present a rigorous theoretical analysis of the off-specular EUV scattering on the basis of the distorted-wave Born approximation. We prove that the determination of the interface roughness power spectral density (PSD) is only possible by considering geometry-dependent and dynamic contributions. The scattering from multilayer mirrors leads to an intrinsic enhancement in off-specular intensity independent of roughness properties. The thickness oscillations in the scattering intensity (Kiessig fringes) are found to cause additional dynamic enhancement in analogy to Bragg-like peaks for grazing incidence geometry. Considering these effects, the interface PSD is consistently determined.

Electronic structure changes during the surface-assisted formation of a graphene nanoribbon.

High conductivity and a tunability of the band gap make quasi-one-dimensional graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) highly interesting materials for the use in field effect transistors. Especially bottom-up fabricated GNRs possess well-defined edges which is important for the electronic structure and accordingly the band gap. In this study we investigate the formation of a sub-nanometer wide armchair GNR generated on a Au(111) surface. The on-surface synthesis is thermally activated and involves an intermediate non-aromatic polymer in which the molecular precursor forms polyanthrylene chains. Employing angle-resolved two-photon photoemission in combination with density functional theory calculations we find that the polymer exhibits two dispersing states which we attribute to the valence and the conduction band, respectively. While the band gap of the non-aromatic polymer obtained in this way is relatively large, namely 5.25 ± 0.06 eV, the gap of the corresponding aromatic GNR is strongly reduced which we attribute to the different degree of electron delocalization in the two systems.