On obtaining high spectral resolution in extreme ultraviolet/soft X-ray monochromators operating off-plane diffraction in a divergent incident beam.

When the trajectory of an incident beam is oriented parallel to the grooves of a periodic grating structure the radiation beam is diffracted off-plane orthogonal to the plane of incidence. The diffraction efficiency in this condition is very high and in a grating with a sawtooth profile it can approach the reflection coefficient for a simple mirror, when the diffraction order of interest follows the direction for specular reflection at the flat part of the steps. When this concept is used in a plane grating in a monochromator for synchrotron radiation sources, the incident beam is almost always collimated in order to minimize any deterioration of the beam properties due to aberrations, which will be introduced in the diffraction process when an uncollimated beam is used.

A high-efficiency and high-spectral-resolution EUV/soft X-ray monochromator based on off-plane diffraction.

The most efficient diffraction at a periodic grating structure is expected to take place when the incident radiation can be considered to have been specularly reflected off the inclined part of grooves that are positioned parallel to the trajectory of the incident beam. Very encouraging results for this configuration, in which the diffraction takes place off-plane, have been reported recently for a grating to be used in a spectrometer for space science investigations. This grating provided high efficiency for a relatively large groove density and a large blaze angle.

On the advantages of operation in second-order diffraction of blazed gratings in soft X-ray monochromators.

The fact that a diffraction grating can provide twofold-smaller bandwidth when operated in second-order diffraction is long known and applied routinely in the laboratory for spectroscopy in the visible and ultraviolet spectral range. A similar routine operation in monochromators for the soft X-ray range is not reported yet. This study will thus address the feasibility of efficient diffraction of soft X-rays in the second order at reflection gratings when operated at grazing angles of incidence.

On smart optimization of blazed soft X-ray gratings.

The first attempts to calculate the diffraction efficiencies of gratings in the soft X-ray range were made on a scalar model. The results were simple analytical equations, that always severely overestimated the performance of real objects. In this respect, computer programs were found to be more successful, which rigorously consider all diffracted and refracted waves.

Zooming X-rays with a single rotation in X-ray prism zoom lenses (XPZL).

Prism arrays arranged to form a slightly open alligator mouth were found to focus incident X-rays, as with increasing distance from the object symmetry axis these rays hit an increasing number of refracting prism tips. Such an object is then formally a refractive lens. Due to the strong energy dependence of the refractive index of material for X-rays a refractive X-ray lens is chromatically focusing.