Normal-incidence silicon-gadolinium multilayers for imaging at 63 nm wavelength

Si/Gd multilayers designed as narrowband reflective coatings near 63 nm were developed. The highest peak reflectance of 26.2% at a 5 degrees incident angle was obtained at 62 nm, and the spectral bandwidth was 7.3 nm FWHM. The fits for x-ray and extreme ultraviolet reflectance data of Si/Gd multilayers indicate the possibility of silicide formation at the Si-Gd interfaces. B(4)C, W, and SiN were deposited as interface barrier layers to improve the reflectance of Si/Gd multilayers. More than an 8% increase in reflectance was observed from the interface-engineered Si/W/Gd and Si/B(4)C/Gd multilayers.