Design of multilayer extreme-ultraviolet mirrors for enhanced reflectivity

We show numerically that the reflectivity of multilayer extreme-UV (EUV) mirrors tuned for the 11-14-nm spectral region, for which the two-component, Mo/Be and Mo/Si multilayer systems with constant layer thickness are commonly used, can be enhanced significantly when we incorporate additional materials within the stack. The reflectivity performance of the quarter-wavelength multilayers can be enhanced further by global optimization procedures with which the layer thicknesses are varied for optimum performance. By incorporating additional materials of differing complex refractive indices-e.g., Rh, Ru, Sr, Pd, and RbCl-in various regions of the stack, we observed peak reflectivity enhancements of as much as ~5% for a single reflector compared with standard unoptimized stacks. We show that, in an EUV optical system with nine near-normal-incidence mirror surfaces, the optical throughput may be increased by a factor as great as 2. We also show that protective capping layers, in addition to protecting the mirrors from environmental attack, may serve to improve the reflectivity characteristics.