Experimental analysis of high-resolution soft x-ray microscopy

The soft x-ray, full-field microscope XM-1 at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's (LBNL) Advanced Light Source has already demonstrated its capability to resolve 25-nm features. This was accomplished using a micro zone plate (MZP) with an outer zone width of 25 run. Limited by the aspect ratio of the resist used in the fabrication, the goldplating thickness of that zone plate is around 40 nm. However, some applications, in particular, biological imaging, prefer improved efficiency, which can be achieved by high-aspect-ratio zone plates. We accomplish this by using a bilayer-resist process in the zone plate fabrication. As our first attempt, a 40-nm-outer-zone-width MZP with a nickelplating thickness of 150 nm (aspect ratio of 4: 1) was successfully fabricated. Relative to the 25-nm MZP, this zone plate is ten times more efficient. Using this high-efficiency MZP a line test pattern with half period of 30 rim is resolved by the microscope at photon energy of 500 eV. Furthermore, with a new multilayer mirror, the XM-1 can now perform imaging up to 1.8 keV. An image of a line test pattern with half period of 40 nm has a measured modulation of 90%. The image was taken at 1.77 keV with the high-efficiency MZP with an outer zone width of 35 nm and a nickel-plating thickness of 180 nm (aspect ratio of 5: 1). XM-1 provides a gateway to high-resolution imaging at high energy. To measure frequency response of the a partially annealed gold "island" pattern was chosen as a test object. After comparison with the SEM image of the pattern, the microscope has the measured cutoff of 19 nm, close to the theoretical one of 17 nm. The normalized frequency response, which is the ratio of the power density of the soft x-ray image to that of the SEM image, is shown in this paper.