This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 9962, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, and Conference Committee listing.

The advent of fully coherent free electron laser and diffraction limited synchrotron storage ring sources of x-rays is catalyzing the development of new ultra-high accuracy metrology methods. To fully exploit the potential of these sources, metrology needs to be capable of determining the figure of an optical element with sub-nanometer height accuracy. Currently, the two most prevalent slope measuring instruments used for characterization of x-ray optics are the auto-collimator based nanometer optical measuring device (NOM) and the long trace profiler (LTP) using pencil beam interferometry. These devices have been consistently improved upon by the x-ray optics metrology community, but appear to be approaching their metrological limits. Here, we consider a novel operational mode for the LTP. The fundamental measuring principle of the LTP is reviewed, and a suggested mode of operation is analytically derived. This mode of operation leads to significant suppression of the instrumental systematic errors. Via cross-comparison measurement with the LTP in old and new modes, the performance of the profiler in the new mode is investigated. We also discuss potential areas of further development, including the possibility for local curvature measurement.

We present the continuous scan operation of the ALBA-NOM as a working mode that allows obtaining low noise in short time, as well as high accuracy measurements. In the traditional step-scan operation, the position of the probe beam is kept fixed while many data points of autocollimator are averaged for noise reduction. This operation mode is very safe, as one has a perfect correspondence between mirror position and measured angle, but it is time inefficient, as it disregards all the data values acquired during motion, and basically averages data values taken under identical conditions. On the other hand, continuous scan is less safe in terms of correspondence between mirror position and slope, especially for NOM systems for which the autocollimator does not accept an electronic trigger. Nevertheless, it is possible to perform independent acquisitions of the autocollimator and of the linear stage data during a scan, and synchronize signals a posteriori. This solves the main problem of continuous scan with a NOM. Continuous scan operation for performing measurements is very efficient for noise reduction per unit time, as it allows integrating every single data value taken by the autocollimator. In addition, it opens the possibility of introducing pitch variations of the mirror between scans. This allows obtaining many independent datasets that can be combined using error suppression techniques to reduce not just noise but systematic errors too. In this paper we report the methods and the main results.

The long trace profiler (LTP) at SPring-8 has been upgraded using a newly developed laser-based slope sensor for precise measurements with high spatial resolution. Simulations of centroid calculation in the slope sensor have been performed to evaluate the ultimate accuracy of slope measurement. A performance test of the LTP has also been performed, and a spatial resolution of 0.6 mm has been confirmed.

The European XFEL will generate extremely short and intense X-ray laser pulses of high coherence and nearly diffraction-limited divergence. Guiding these X-rays beams over a distance of more than 1 km to the experiments requires an extreme precision in pointing stability of the optical beamline components like mirrors and gratings and also a good control of the divergence of the beam. The specifications of the X-ray mirrors that will be used to transport, distribute and focus the beam are high demanding. It will be required for the reflecting surfaces to have a surface quality of better than 2 nm Peak-To-Valley over a 950-mm length: the ratio between these two parameters, on the order of 10^-9, makes the requirements very challenging to be accomplished. In order to account for the real shape of the mirrors and to assist the production with absolute metrology, it is proposed to use a Fizeau interferometer. Being the mirrors much bigger than the interferometer clear aperture, it is however needed to use an angled (“grazing incidence”) cavity setup to be able to measure the mirrors over their entire length. In using this setup, there are some open questions about the reproducibility of the method, the influence of the particular grazing angle that is used and the level of accuracy that could be expected with different averages. We present a discussion about theory and practical implementation of “grazing incidence” interferometric measurements, with some examples of real measurements at European XFEL on the first beam distribution mirrors.

Low-roughness ultrasmooth surfaces are under increasing demand in short-wavelength optical systems. Substitching interferometry has been used to measure the profiles of surfaces used in X-ray beam. To validate the stitching accuracy of our optical profiler, a comparison of stitching surfaces using a 10X objective and those directly measured using a 2.5X objective is performed with a resolution of 1 μm. By studying the multiple measurements and defocussing errors, the reference surface error is measured in various regions of a standard flat surface with random positions and rotation angles. In the final experiment, 25 subapertures measured using a 10X objective with reduced reference surface error are stitched to a 2.54 X 1.90 mm area. The comparison is between the stitching and the same area measured directly using the 2.5X objective, and the results show that a root-mean-square accuracy of <0.2 nm can be achieved.

Aspheric or free-form optics with high accuracy are necessary in many fields such as third-generation synchrotron radiation and extreme-ultraviolet lithography. Therefore the demand of measurement method for aspherical or free-form surface with nanometer accuracy increases. Purpose of our study is to develop a non-contact measurement technology for aspheric or free-form surfaces directly with high repeatability. To achieve this purpose we have developed threedimensional Nanoprofiler which detects normal vectors of sample surface. The measurement principle is based on the straightness of laser light and the accurate motion of rotational goniometers. This machine consists of four rotational stages, one translational stage and optical head which has the quadrant photodiode (QPD) and laser source. In this measurement method, we conform the incident light beam to reflect the beam by controlling five stages and determine the normal vectors and the coordinates of the surface from signal of goniometers, translational stage and QPD. We can obtain three-dimensional figure from the normal vectors and their coordinates by surface reconstruction algorithm. To evaluate performance of this machine we measure a concave aspheric mirror with diameter of 150 mm. As a result we achieve to measure large area of 150mm diameter. And we observe influence of systematic errors which the machine has. Then we simulated the influence and subtracted it from measurement result.

The performance of ellipsoidal mirrors, which can be used to focus soft X-rays to nanometer spots, has not yet been optimized. Development of the surface profiler used in the fabrication process is a key step toward improving the performance of such mirrors. Because ellipsoidal mirrors have a complex geometry, our group has developed the following two-step process for their fabrication. First, a master mandrel with the inverse shape is prepared, after which the ellipsoidal mirror is fabricated by replicating the surface using an electroforming method. In this study, we develop a surface profiler for the master mandrel using multiple displacement sensors and motorized stages. One displacement sensor is used to measure the surface profile and the others are used to measure the motion errors of the stages. The longitudinal surface profiles of the mandrel could be measured with a repeatability of 1.58 nm (RMS). Based on the measured shape error profile, shape correction processing was conducted using elastic emission machining (EEM), which is an ultra-precision technique. After performing EEM three times, the shape error of the mandrel improved from 20.5 nm (RMS) to 4.2 nm (RMS).

The manufacturing of multilayer Laue (MLL) components for X-ray optics by physical vapor deposition (PVD) requires high precision and accuracy that presents a significant process control challenge. Currently, no process control system provides the accuracy, long-term stability and broad capability for adoption in the manufacturing of X-ray optics. In situ atomic absorption spectroscopy is a promising process control solution, capable of monitoring the deposition rate and chemical composition of extremely thin metal silicide films during deposition and overcoming many limitations of the traditional methods. A novel in situ PVD process control system for the manufacturing of high-precision thin films, based on combined atomic absorption/emission spectrometry in the vicinity of the deposited substrate, is described. By monitoring the atomic concentration in the plasma region independently from the film growth on the deposited substrate, the method allows deposition control of extremely thin films, compound thin films and complex multilayer structures. It provides deposition rate and film composition measurements that can be further utilized for dynamic feedback process control. The system comprises a reconfigurable hardware module located outside the deposition chamber with hollow cathode light sources and a fiber-optic-based frame installed inside the deposition chamber. Recent experimental results from in situ monitoring of Al and Si thin films deposited by DC and RF magnetron sputtering at a variety of plasma conditions and monitoring configurations are presented. The results validate the operation of the system in the deposition of compound thin films and provide a path forward for use in manufacturing of X-Ray optics.

Recently, an original method for the statistical modeling of surface topography of state-of-the-art mirrors for usage in xray optical systems at light source facilities and for astronomical telescopes [Opt. Eng. 51(4), 046501, 2012; ibid. 53(8), 084102 (2014); and ibid. 55(7), 074106 (2016)] has been developed. In modeling, the mirror surface topography is considered to be a result of a stationary uniform stochastic polishing process and the best fit time-invariant linear filter (TILF) that optimally parameterizes, with limited number of parameters, the polishing process is determined. The TILF model allows the surface slope profile of an optic with a newly desired specification to be reliably forecast before fabrication. With the forecast data, representative numerical evaluations of expected performance of the prospective mirrors in optical systems under development become possible [Opt. Eng., 54(2), 025108 (2015)]. Here, we suggest and demonstrate an analytical approach for accounting the imperfections of the used metrology instruments, which are described by the instrumental point spread function, in the TILF modeling. The efficacy of the approach is demonstrated with numerical simulations for correction of measurements performed with an autocollimator based surface slope profiler. Besides solving this major metrological problem, the results of the present work open an avenue for developing analytical and computational tools for stitching data in the statistical domain, obtained using multiple metrology instruments measuring significantly different bandwidths of spatial wavelengths.

We propose a method to determine the required performances of the positioning mechanics of the optical elements of a beamline. Generally, when designing and specifying a beamline, one assumes that the position and orientations of the optical elements should be aligned to its ideal position. For this, one would generally require six degrees of freedom per optical element. However, this number is reduced due to symmetries (e.g. a flat mirror does not care about yaw). Generally, one ends up by motorizing many axes, with high resolution and a large motion range. On the other hand, the diagnostics available at a beamline provide much less variables than the available motions. Moreover, the actual parameters that one wants to optimize are reduced to a very few. These are basically, spot size and size at the sample, flux, and spectral resolution. The result is that many configurations of the beamline are actually equivalent, and therefore indistinguishable from the ideal alignment in terms of performance.We propose a method in which the effect of misalignment of each one of the degrees of freedom of the beamline is scanned by ray tracing. This allows building a linear system in which one can identify and select the best set of motions to control the relevant parameters of the beam. Once the model is built it provides the required optical pseudomotors as well as the requirements in alignment and manufacturing, for all the motions, as well as the range, resolution and repeatability of the motorized axes.