Soft X‐ray spectroscopy Using Thick Gold Transmission Gratings of 0.2 to 0.3 μm Spatial Periods

We have fabricated and tested transmissin diffraction gratings with spatial periods of 0.2 and 0.3 μm and gold thicknesses of 0.25 and 0.65 μm respectively. The fabrication process included holographic lithography, ion milling, x‐ray lithography and gold and gold microplating. The gratings were coupled to a Wolter‐type 22x grazing incidence microscope, forming a high resolution imaging spectrometer. This spectrometer demonstrated a spatial resolution of ∼1 μm and a resolving power, λ/Δλ, ≳200 at .69 nm. The observed spectral resolution, Δλ, was source size limited.