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Hard X-ray microscopy is a prominent tool suitable for nanoscale-resolution non-destructive imaging of various materials used in different areas of science and technology. With an ongoing effort to push the 2D/3D imaging resolution down to 10 nm in the hard X-ray regime, both the fabrication of nano-focusing optics and the stability of the microscope using those optics become extremely challenging. In this work a microscopy system designed and constructed to accommodate multilayer Laue lenses as nanofocusing optics is presented. The developed apparatus has been thoroughly characterized in terms of resolution and stability followed by imaging experiments at a synchrotron facility. Drift rates of ∼2 nm h−1accompanied by 13 nm × 33 nm imaging resolution at 11.8 keV are reported.

The semiconductor industry is moving toward a half-pitch of 7 nm. The required metrology equipment should be one order of magnitude more accurate than that. Any metrology tool is only as good as it is calibrated. The characterization of metrology systems requires test patterns that are one order of magnitude smaller than the measured features. The test sample was designed in such a way that the distribution of linewidths appears to be random at any location and any magnification. The power spectral density of such pseudo-random test pattern is inherently flat, down to the minimum size of lines. Metrology systems add a cut-off of the spectra at high frequencies; the shape of the cut-off characterizes the system in its entire dynamic range. This method is widely used in optics, and has allowed optical systems to be perfected down to their diffraction limit. There were attempts to use the spectral method to characterize nanometrology systems such as SEMs, but the absence of natural samples with known spatial frequencies was a common problem. Pseudo-random test patterns with linewidths down to 1.5 nm were fabricated. The system characterization includes the imaging of a pseudo-random test sample and image analysis by a developed software to automatically extract the power spectral density and the contrast transfer function of the nanoimaging system.

Characterization and testing of an L-shaped laterally graded multilayer mirror are presented. This mirror is designed as a two-dimensional collimating optics for the analyzer system of the ultra-high-resolution inelastic X-ray scattering (IXS) spectrometer at National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II). The characterization includes point-to-point reflectivity measurements, lattice parameter determination and mirror metrology (figure, slope error and roughness). The synchrotron X-ray test of the mirror was carried out reversely as a focusing device. The results show that the L-shaped laterally graded multilayer mirror is suitable to be used, with high efficiency, for the analyzer system of the IXS spectrometer at NSLS-II.

We report on the characterization of a multilayer Laue lens (MLL) with large acceptance, made of a novel WSi2/Al bilayer system. Fabrication of multilayers with large deposition thickness is required to obtain MLL structures with sufficient apertures capable of accepting the full lateral coherence length of x-rays at typical nanofocusing beamlines. To date, the total deposition thickness has been limited by stress-buildup in the multilayer. We were able to grow WSi2/Al with low grown-in stress, and asses the degree of stress reduction. X-ray diffraction experiments were conducted at beamline 1-BM at the Advanced Photon Source. We used monochromatic x-rays with a photon energy of 12 keV and a bandwidth of ΔE/E=5.4·10(-4). The MLL was grown with parallel layer interfaces, and was designed to have a large focal length of 9.6 mm. The mounted lens was 2.7 mm in width. We found and quantified kinks and bending of sections of the MLL. Sections with bending were found to partly have a systematic progression in the interface angles. We observed kinking in some, but not all, areas. The measurements are compared with dynamic diffraction calculations made with Coupled Wave Theory. Data are plotted showing the diffraction efficiency as a function of the external tilting angle of the entire mounted lens. This way of plotting the data was found to provide an overview into the diffraction properties of the whole lens, and enabled the following layer tilt analyses.

We report on the fabrication and the characterization of a wedged multilayer Laue lens for x-ray nanofocusing. The lens was fabricated using a sputtering deposition technique, in which a specially designed mask was employed to introduce a thickness gradient in the lateral direction of the multilayer. X-ray characterization shows an efficiency of 27% and a focus size of 26 nm at 14.6 keV, in a good agreement with theoretical calculations. These results indicate that the desired wedging is achieved in the fabricated structure. We anticipate that continuous development on wedged MLLs will advance x-ray nanofocusing optics to new frontiers and enrich capabilities and opportunities for hard X-ray microscopy.

Profile coating has been successfully applied to produce elliptical Kirkpatrick-Baez (KB) mirrors using both cylindrical and flat Si substrates. Previously, focusing widths of 70 nm with 15-keV monochromatic and 80 nm with white beam were achieved using a flat Si substrate. Now, precision elliptical KB mirrors with sub-nm figure errors are produced with both Au and Pt coatings on flat substrates. Recent studies of bare Si-, Au-, and Pt-coated KB mirrors under prolonged synchrotron X-ray radiation and low-temperature vacuum annealing will be discussed in terms of film stress relaxation and Si plastic deformation.

We discuss the results of SEM and TEM measurements with the BPRML test samples fabricated from a BPRML (WSi2/Si with fundamental layer thickness of 3 nm) with a Dual Beam FIB (focused ion beam)/SEM technique. In particular, we demonstrate that significant information about the metrological reliability of the TEM measurements can be extracted even when the fundamental frequency of the BPRML sample is smaller than the Nyquist frequency of the measurements. The measurements demonstrate a number of problems related to the interpretation of the SEM and TEM data. Note that similar BPRML test samples can be used to characterize x-ray microscopes. Corresponding work with x-ray microscopes is in progress.

A modulation transfer function (MTF) calibration method based on binary pseudo-random (BPR) gratings and arrays [Proc. SPIE 7077-7 (2007), Opt. Eng. 47(7), 073602-1-5 (2008)] has been proven to be an effective MTF calibration method for a number of interferometric microscopes and a scatterometer [Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 616, 172-82 (2010]. Here we report on a significant expansion of the application range of the method. We describe the MTF calibration of a 6 inch phase shifting Fizeau interferometer. Beyond providing a direct measurement of the interferometer's MTF, tests with a BPR array surface have revealed an asymmetry in the instrument's data processing algorithm that fundamentally limits its bandwidth. Moreover, the tests have illustrated the effects of the instrument's detrending and filtering procedures on power spectral density measurements. The details of the development of a BPR test sample suitable for calibration of scanning and transmission electron microscopes are also presented. Such a test sample is realized as a multilayer structure with the layer thicknesses of two materials corresponding to BPR sequence. The investigations confirm the universal character of the method that makes it applicable to a large variety of metrology instrumentation with spatial wavelength bandwidths from a few nanometers to hundreds of millimeters.

Any metrology tool is only as good as it is calibrated. The characterization of metrology systems requires test patterns at a scale about ten times smaller than the measured features. The fabrication of patterns with linewidths down to 1.5 nm is described. The test sample was designed in such a way that the distribution of linewidths appears to be random at any location. This pseudorandom test pattern is used to characterize dimensional metrology equipment over its entire dynamic range by extracting the modulation transfer function of the system. The test pattern contains alternating lines of silicon and tungsten silicide, each according to its designed width. The fabricated test samples were imaged using a transmission electron microscope, a scanning electron microscope, and an atomic force microscope.