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 system for an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light source includes a light-generation system configured to emit one or more light beams onto a beam path; one or more optical amplifiers, each of the one or more amplifiers including a gain medium on the beam path, each gain medium being configured to amplify the one or more light beams to produce one or more amplified light beams; and one or more diffractive optical elements on the beam path, where each of the one or more diffractive optical elements has a plurality of focal lengths, and each focal length of the diffractive optical element is associated with a particular polarization state.

A reflector (2) comprising a plate (4) supported by a substrate (8), wherein the plate has a reflective surface (5) and is secured to the substrate by adhesive free bonding, and wherein a cooling channel array (10) is provided in the reflector. The channels (16) of the cooling channel array may be formed from open channels in a surface of the substrate, the open channels being closed by the plate to create the channels.

The method of producing this diffraction grating includes a step of generating a moire by a periodic pattern projected onto a plurality of unit diffraction gratings and a plurality of unit diffraction gratings, and a step of adjusting so that the extending directions of the gratings are aligned by relatively rotating at least one of a plurality of unit diffractions with respect to at least one of the others of the plurality of unit diffractions.

According to one embodiment, an X-ray computed tomography apparatus includes an X-ray tube, collimators including through holes respectively collimating an X-ray and diffraction bodies provided in the holes respectively, diffracting the X-ray at an angle to an X-ray energy, X-ray detection elements provided at predetermined distances from the bodies, counting circuitry counting the number of photons originating from the X-ray, storage circuitry storing statistical information, corresponding to energy bins in the X-ray, concerning a count distribution of count values with positions of the elements, classification circuitry classifying the numbers of counted photons for the bins by using the information, reconstruction circuitry reconstructing a medical image to the bins based on the number of photons classified for the bins.

A lithographic apparatus for patterning a beam of radiation and projecting it onto a substrate, comprising at least two spectral purity filters configured to reduce the intensity of radiation in the beam of radiation in at least one undesirable range of radiation wavelength, wherein the two spectral purity filters are provided with different radiation filtering structures from each other.

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.

The invention relates to a method for producing a bird protection device and to a bird protection device. According to the invention, a method for producing a bird protection device is proposed, wherein the bird protection device is made of an at least partially transparent material and contains an optical structure visible to a bird's eye. Here, the method comprises a radiation input, wherein the radiation input is implemented on and/or in the partially transparent material for forming the optical structure. The radiation input is preferably laser radiation. Suitable lasers for the radiation input are, for example, CO2 lasers with a wavelength of 1064 nm, picosecond lasers with a wavelength of 532 nm or nanosecond lasers with a wavelength of 532 nm. In one embodiment of the invention, the bird protection device furthermore comprises an element for increasing the contrast, wherein, for forming the optical structure, the radiation input is implemented on and/or in the element for increasing the contrast.

In one aspect, the present invention provides a curved grating structure manufacturing method which comprises: a grating forming step of forming, in one surface of a grating-forming workpiece, a grating region in which a plurality of members mutually having the same shape are periodically provided; a stress layer forming step of forming a stress layer capable of generating stress, on a grating plane-defining surface of the grating region; a boding step of bonding a support substrate to the stress layer; a polishing step of polishing the other surface of the grating-forming workpiece on a side opposite to the one surface having the support substrate bonded thereto; and a peeling step of peeling off the support substrate from the stress layer, wherein the polishing step includes performing the polishing to allow the grating-forming workpiece to be curved by a stress arising from the stress layer, after the peeling step.

Diffraction gratings for a phase-stepping measurement system for determining an aberration map for a projection system are disclosed. The gratings are two-dimensional diffraction gratings for use as wafer level gratings in an EUV lithographic apparatus. In particular, the diffraction gratings include a substrate provided with a two-dimensional array of circular through-apertures and are self-supporting. In some embodiments, a ratio of the radius of the circular apertures to the distance between the centers of adjacent apertures may be selected to minimize the gain and cross-talk errors of a wavefront reconstruction algorithm. For example, the ratio may be between 0.34 and 0.38. In some embodiments, the circular apertures are distributed such that a distance between the centers of adjacent apertures is non-uniform and varies across the diffraction grating. For example, a local pitch of the grating may vary randomly across the diffraction grating.