Structure and extreme ultraviolet performance of Si/C multilayers deposited under different working pressures

Narrow bandwidth Si/C multilayer mirrors are fabricated and characterized for the Z-pinch plasma diagnostic at a wavelength of 16.5 nm. To reduce the large stress of the multilayer and maintain a practical reflectivity, different working pressures, from 0.13 Pa to 0.52 Pa, are optimized during the deposition. The grazing incidence x-ray reflectometry (GIXR) measurement and the fitting results indicate that an interlayer was formed at the interfaces, while both the interlayer thickness and interface widths increase with larger working pressure. The surface roughness of the multilayers also increases from 0.13 nm at 0.13 Pa to 0.29 nm at 0.52 Pa, as revealed by the atomic force microscope (AFM) measurements. The multilayer stress decreases from -682 MPa to −384  MPa as the working pressure increases from 0.13 Pa to 0.52 Pa, respectively. The experimental extreme ultraviolet (EUV) reflectivity of the samples with 20 bilayers gradually decreased from 26.3% to 18.9% with increased working pressure. The bandwidth of the reflection peak remains similar for the different samples with a full width half-maximum (FWHM) value of around 0.87 nm. A maximum EUV reflectivity of 33.2% and a bandwidth of 0.64 nm were achieved by the sample with 50 bilayers fabricated under a working pressure of 0.13 Pa.