Use Of Layered Synthetic Microstructures At Grazing Incidence In The VUV And Soft X-Ray Regions

Abstract

The layered synthetic microstructure (LSM) has come into widespread use in VUV and soft x-ray research. Mirrors with large reflectance values (>50%) at normal incidence have been made for wavelengths as short as 160 A. LSMs can also provide large reflectance values at grazing incidence. Reflectance maxima at grazing incidence can have narrow angular half-widths in the soft x-ray region, thus making them useful as dispersing elements. By incor-porating a thick spacer layer, similar to a Fabry-Perot etalon, the angular half-widths can be made even narrower. The location of these spacer layers within the LSM influences the half-width of the maxima. For wavelengths in the soft x-ray region the reflecting maxima do not discriminate between s and p polarization. However, as the wavelength increases, into the VUV, the angular half-widths increase and polarization discrimination does occur. Results of calculations will be presented to illustrate these effects.