Investigation of ZrC/Al interfaces in a Al/ZrC/Al/W waveguide-like structure by soft X-ray reflectivity technique

Abstract

ZrC/Al multilayer is found suitable for soft X-ray/EUV region near the Al L absorption edge. Intermixing of Al at the interfaces is a serious problem in order to achieve the calculated reflectivity performances from an experimentally grown multilayer. In this study our aim is to investigate the ZrC/Al interfaces by making a waveguide-like structure as Al/ZrC/Al/W. We used soft X-ray reflectivity (SXR) to study the structure composed of 4 layers deposited on a Si substrate. Structural parameters of the stack, density, thickness and roughness of the layers, are determined through fitting the SXR data.