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We report a hard x-ray patterning capable of drawing lines with a width below100 nm using x-rays at 0.165 nm. A specially prepared mask based on multilayer growth technology was used as an x-ray mask effectively. The x-ray Talbot effect in near field was investigated and utilized in the patterning. Since multilayers with a few nanometer layer spacing are readily available, the proposed hard x-ray nano patterning, free of the limit imposed by the Rayleigh criterion in optical range, can potentially be an ultimate optical lithography technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Back-reflection images obtained from single-crystal semiconductor substrates using Laue microdiffraction with medium-to-high energy x rays (10–30 keV) may contain double spots, one strong and one weak, for the higher-energy reflections. Some of the weaker spots originate from the back surface of the sample and are due to dynamic diffraction from a finite crystal. Others may be due to epitaxial thin films on the substrate. The intensity and position of the back-surface peaks depend on the x-ray energy, sample characteristics, and diffraction geometry. We provide a set of simple equations that can be used to calculate the separation of such peak pairs. These equations can be used to identify the peaks from the back surface of the sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report our experiences with conducting ptychography simultaneously with the X-ray fluorescence measurement using the on-the-fly mode for efficient multi-modality imaging. We demonstrate that the periodic artifact inherent to the raster scan pattern can be mitigated using a sufficiently fine scan step size to provide an overlap ratio of >70%. This allows us to obtain transmitted phase contrast images with enhanced spatial resolution from ptychography while maintaining the fluorescence imaging with continuous-motion scans on pixelated grids. This capability will greatly improve the competence and throughput of scanning probe X-ray microscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report improved results for hard x-ray focusing using a multilayer Laue lens (MLL). We have measured a line focus of 16 nm width with an efficiency of 31% at a wavelength λ=0.064 nm (19.5 keV) using a partial MLL structure with an outermost zone width of 5 nm. The results are in good agreement with the theoretically predicted performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple and effective approach has been developed to grow silver (Ag) nanoplates on n-type gallium arsenide (GaAs) wafers through a reaction between the wafers themselves and aqueous solutions of silver nitrate at room temperature [Sun and Wiederrecht, Small 3, 1964 (2007)]. In this letter, the effect of green laser irradiation, which can efficiently excite the valence band of a GaAs substrate to form electron-hole pairs in the shallow surface region (<3 μm), on the growth of Ag nanoplates is studied. Illumination with the laser significantly depresses the growth of Ag nanoplates. In comparison, the influence of synchrotron x-rays, which can excite the deep core levels of elements and deeply penetrate (>50 μm) into GaAs lattices, on the growth of Ag nanoplates is also studied. The results indicate that the excited deep core levels can relax into electron-hole pairs in the band edges to induce similar effects to that of the green laser except that the larger area around the x-ray beam is affected to inhibit the growth of Ag nanoplates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]