Soft X-Ray Microscopy at HZB: Zone Plate Development and Imaging Using the Third Order of Diffraction

Journal Article · Fri Sep 09 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3625298· OSTI ID:21608301

Rehbein, S; Guttmann, P; Werner, S; Schneider, G ^[1]

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1. Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin fuer Materialien und Energie GmbH, Wilhelm-Conrad-Roentgen-Campus, BESSY II, Albert-Einstein-Str. 15, 12489 Berlin (Germany)

The Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) operates a transmission x-ray microscope (TXM) in the soft x-ray photon energy range with an energy resolution up to E/{Delta}E = 10{sup 4}. An approach to achieve ultrahigh spatial resolution with conventional, standard zone plate optics is to employ higher orders of diffraction of the zone plate objective. In this paper, we demonstrate that 11-nm lines and spaces of a multilayer test structure are clearly resolved by the x-ray microscope using the third order of diffraction of a zone plate objective with 20-nm outermost zone width. The disadvantage of high-order imaging is an about one order of magnitude lower diffraction efficiency of the used zone plates employed in the third order compared to the first order of diffraction. In addition, the measured background signal in the TXM images is no longer negligible. Therefore, we worked on the fabrication of zone plates with sub-20-nm outermost zone width to increase the spatial resolution in the first order of diffraction. A new high-resolution 100-keV e-beam lithography system from VISTEC, which was recently installed at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, makes these developments possible. Initial results on zone plates with an outermost zone width down to 15 nm exposed with the new e-beam system are presented. Furthermore, the contrast transfer function of the transmission x-ray microscope operating in partial coherence mode is measured by using the first and third diffraction order of the zone plate objective.

• OSTI ID: 21608301
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1365, Issue 1; Conference: 10. international conference on X-ray microscopy, Chicago, IL (United States), 15-20 Aug 2010; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3625298; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
BEAM OPTICS
BEAM TRANSPORT
ELECTRON BEAMS
ENERGY RESOLUTION
IMAGE PROCESSING
IMAGES
KEV RANGE
LAYERS
MICROSCOPES
MICROSCOPY
PLATES
SOFT X RADIATION
SPATIAL RESOLUTION
TRANSFER FUNCTIONS
X-RAY DIFFRACTION
X-RAY SOURCES
ZONES
BEAMS
COHERENT SCATTERING
DIFFRACTION
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ENERGY RANGE
FUNCTIONS
IONIZING RADIATIONS
LEPTON BEAMS
PARTICLE BEAMS
PROCESSING
RADIATION SOURCES
RADIATIONS
RESOLUTION
SCATTERING
X RADIATION