Elements of photonic devices with high aspect ratio patterns are fabricated. A stabilizing catalyst that forms a stable metal-semiconductor alloy allows to etch a substrate in vertical direction even at very low oxidant concentration without external bias or magnetic field. A metal layer on the substrate reacts with the oxidant contained in air and catalyzes the semiconductor etching by the etchant. Air in continuous flow at the metal layer allows to maintain constant the oxidant concentration in proximity of the metal layer. The process can continue for a long time in order to form very high aspect ratio structures in the order of 10,000:1. Once the etched semiconductor structure is formed, the continuous air flow supports the reactant species diffusing through the etched semiconductor structure to maintain a uniform etching rate. The continuous air flow supports the diffusion of reaction by-products to avoid poisoning of the etching reaction.

A delivery system for use within a lithographic system. The beam delivery system comprises optical elements arranged to receive a radiation beam from a radiation source and to reflect portions of radiation along one or more directions to form a one or more branch radiation beams for provision to one or more tools.

An optical grating (8) includes a substrate (9), on the surface (9a) of which a periodic structure (10) is formed that is embodied to diffract incident radiation (11), in particular incident EUV radiation, with a specified wavelength (.sub.) into a predetermined order of diffraction, in particular into the first order of diffraction (m=+1). The optical grating also has a coating (12) applied onto the periodic structure with at least one layer (13, 14) that is embodied to suppress the diffraction of the incident radiation into at least one higher order of diffraction (m=+2, . . . ) than the predetermined order of diffraction.

An EUV collector serves for use in an EUV projection exposure apparatus. The collector guides EUV used light emitted by a plasma source region. An overall impingement surface of the collector is impinged upon by radiation emitted by the plasma source region. A used light portion of the overall impingement surface guides the EUV used light. An extraneous light portion of the overall impingement surface is impinged upon by extraneous light radiation, the wavelength of which differs from that of the used light. The used light portion and the extraneous light portion are not congruent. This EUV collector has increased efficiency can involve reduced production costs.

A diffractive optical element includes a substrate, a first resin layer formed on the substrate and having a diffraction grating shape including a plurality of wall surfaces and a plurality of slopes, a second resin layer formed in close contact with the first resin layer, a high refractive-index portion formed on the plurality of wall surfaces of the first resin layer and having a higher refractive index than the first and the second resin layers, and a close contact portion discontinuous with the high refractive-index portion, wherein the close contact portion is formed on the plurality of slopes of the first resin layer, and wherein a thickness of the close contact portion is smaller than a height of the plurality of wall surfaces.

A diffractive optical element prevents degradation of the optical performance of the element due to moisture absorption of the resin layers from taking place and also can prevent cracks of the resin layers and peeling of the resin layers along the interface thereof from taking place in a hot environment or in a cold environment. The diffractive optical element comprises a first layer and a second layer sequentially laid on a substrate, a diffraction grating being formed at the interface of the first layer and the second layer, the height d of the diffraction grating, the average film thickness t1 of the first layer and the average film thickness t2 of the second layer satisfying the relationship requirements expressed by the expressions of 1.1dt150 m and 30 mt2(400 mt1d).

X-ray scattering imaging can provide complementary information about the unresolved microstructures of a sample. The scattering signal can be accessed with various methods based on coherent illumination, which span from self-imaging to speckle scanning. The directional sensitivity of the existing methods is limited to a few directions on the imaging plane and it requires the scanning of the optical components, or the rotation of either the sample or the imaging setup, if the full range of possible scattering directions is desired. A new arrangement is provided that allows the simultaneous acquisition of the scattering images in all possible directions in a single shot. This is achieved by a specialized phase grating and a device for recording the generated interference fringe with sufficient spatial resolution. The technique decouples the sample dark-field signal with the sample orientation, which can be crucial for medical and industrial applications.

A grating based interferometric X-ray imaging apparatus having an interferometer (IF). The interferometer comprises at least one grating (G1). The grating (G1) is tiltable relative to an optical axis of the X-ray imaging apparatus. This allows changing a design energy of the X-ray imaging apparatus.

An optical diffraction component has a periodic grating structure profile. The diffraction structure levels are arranged so that a wavelength range around two different target wavelengths diffracted by the grating structure profile has radiation components with three different phases that interfere destructively with one another. Diffraction structure levels predefine a topography of a grating period of the grating structure profile that is repeated regularly along a period running direction. These include a neutral diffraction structure level, a positive diffraction structure level raised relative thereto, and a negative diffraction structure level lowered relative thereto. The neutral diffraction structure level has an extent along the period running direction which is less than 50% of the extent of the grating period. A difference between the two target wavelengths is less than 50%. The result is an optical diffraction component whose possibilities for use can be extended, for example, to stray light suppression.

An EUV collector for use in an EUV projection exposure apparatus includes at least one mirror surface having surface structures for scattering a used EUV wavelength () of used EUV light. The mirror surface has a surface height with a spatial wavelength distribution between a lower limit spatial wavelength and an upper limit spatial wavelength. An effective roughness (rmsG) below the lower limit spatial wavelength (PG) satisfies the following relation: (4 rmsG cos()/).sup.2<0.1. denotes an angle of incidence of the used EUV light at the mirror surface. The following applies to an effective roughness (rmsGG) between the lower limit spatial wavelength (PG) and the upper limit spatial wavelength (PG): 1.5 rmsG<rmsGG<6 rmsG.