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Invited Article: High-quality blazed gratings through synergy between e-beam lithography and robust characterization
Analía F Herrero1,2, Nazanin Samadi3,4, Andrey Sokolov1
1Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Albert-Einstein Str. 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany.
The Review of Scientific Instruments
|December 5, 2025
Summary
Manufacturing high-quality blazed gratings for photon science is now more accessible. Electron-beam lithography offers a robust method for producing these critical components, meeting theoretical predictions for synchrotron applications.
Area of Science:
- Photon science
- Optics
- Materials science
Background:
- High-quality blazed gratings are essential for VUV-, EUV-, soft-, and tender-x-ray photon science.
- Current availability of these gratings is limited by technological challenges and manufacturing constraints.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and demonstrate a method for manufacturing high-quality blazed gratings using electron-beam lithography (EBL).
- To investigate parameters affecting the optical performance of blazed gratings produced via EBL.
- To establish a robust manufacturing process for synchrotron-based science applications.
Main Methods:
- Utilized electron-beam lithography (EBL) for grating fabrication.
- Employed polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) as a positive tone resist.
- Applied ion beam etching for precise profile creation.
- Investigated various process parameters influencing grating efficiency.
Main Results:
- Developed a robust EBL-based manufacturing process for blazed gratings.
- Achieved high-quality blazed profiles suitable for photon science.
- Demonstrated excellent agreement between the measured efficiency of EBL-fabricated gratings and theoretical predictions.
Conclusions:
- Electron-beam lithography provides a viable and effective method for producing high-quality blazed gratings.
- The developed process overcomes current manufacturing limitations, improving availability for synchrotron science.
- The results validate the potential of EBL for advanced optical component fabrication.
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