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Nitridated Ru/B4C multilayer mirrors with improved interface structure, zero stress, and enhanced hard X-ray
Optics Express
|August 23, 2018
Summary
Nitrogen incorporation into Ruthenium/Boron Carbide (Ru/B4C) multilayers significantly reduces compressive stress and enhances reflectance for hard X-ray monochromators. This technique improves mirror performance for X-ray applications.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Optics
Background:
- Ruthenium/Boron Carbide (Ru/B4C) multilayer mirrors are crucial components in hard X-ray monochromators, offering moderate spectral resolution and high integral flux.
- A significant challenge with Ru/B4C multilayers is the inherent large compressive stress, which can limit their performance and applicability.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of reactive sputtering with nitrogen on reducing compressive stress in Ru/B4C multilayers.
- To enhance the reflectance properties of these multilayer mirrors for hard X-ray applications.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of Ru/B4C multilayers using reactive sputtering with a mixed working gas of argon and nitrogen at varying partial pressures.
- Characterization of intrinsic stress, interface roughness, and reflectance using techniques such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).
Main Results:
- Nitridation effectively reduced intrinsic stress, achieving near-zero stress at approximately 15% nitrogen partial pressure.
- A slight increase in interface roughness was observed due to the formation of a polycrystalline structure.
- Nitridated multilayers exhibited significantly enhanced reflectance (67% at 8.04 keV) compared to those fabricated with pure argon (54%).
Conclusions:
- Nitrogen incorporation, primarily forming Boron Nitride (BN) compounds within the B4C layers, stabilizes interfaces and suppresses boron diffusion.
- The developed reactive sputtering technique offers a viable method for producing low-stress, high-reflectance Ru/B4C multilayer mirrors for hard X-ray applications.
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