Ultra-short-period WC/SiC multilayer coatings for x-ray applications

• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2012.10.066
• Publication Date: 2012-10-26T20:12:51Z
• Authors: Mónica Fernández-...; Mike J. Pivovaroff; Regina Soufli; Jennifer Alameda; Paul Mirkarimi; Marie-Anne Descalle; Sherry L. Baker; Tom McCarville; Klaus Ziock; Donald Hornback; Suzanne Romaine; Ric Bruni; Zhong Zhong; Veijo Honkimäki; Eric Ziegler; Finn E. Christensen; Anders C. Jakobsen
• Keywords: 02 engineering and technology; 0210 nano-technology

Abstract Multilayer coatings enhance x-ray mirror performance at incidence angles steeper than the critical angle, allowing for improved flux, design flexibility and facilitating alignment. In an attempt to extend the use of multilayer coatings to photon energies higher than previously achieved, we have developed multilayers with ultra-short periods between 1 and 2 nm based on the material system WC/SiC. This material system was selected because it possesses very sharp and stable interfaces. In this article, we show highlights from a series of experiments performed in order to characterize the stress, microstructure and morphology of the multilayer films, as well as their reflective performance at photon energies from 8 to 384 keV.