Disclosed herein is an x-ray interferometer for x-ray phase contrast imaging including an x-ray source, an x-ray source grating, two x-ray phase gratings, an x-ray analyzer grating and an x-ray detector. An alternative interferometer includes a periodically structured x-ray source, two x-ray phase gratings, an x-ray analyzer grating and an x-ray detector. The phase gratings are placed much closer to the x-ray detector than to the x-ray source and the image object is positioned upstream and close to the phase gratings to achieve high sensitivity and large field-of-view simultaneously.

The substrate with a multilayer reflective film includes a substrate and the multilayer reflective film configured to reflect exposure light, the multilayer reflective film comprising a stack of alternating layers on a substrate, the alternating layers including a low refractive index layer and a high refractive index layer, in which the multilayer reflective film contains molybdenum (Mo) and at least one additive element selected from nitrogen (N), boron (B), carbon (C), zirconium (Zr), oxygen (O), hydrogen (H) and deuterium (D), and the crystallite size of the multilayer reflective film calculated from a diffraction peak of Mo (110) by X-ray diffraction is 2.5 nm or less.

The invention relates to an X-ray source (10) comprising at least one waveguide (30) for X-ray radiation, wherein the at least one waveguide (30) has a core (32) and a casing (40) surrounding the core (32), and wherein at least one part of the waveguide (30) is designed to emit X-ray radiation (50), if the part of the waveguide (30) is bombarded with electrons (52). The invention also relates to a system for generating X-ray radiation comprising an X-ray source of this type, and a method for generating X-ray radiation by means of an X-ray source of this type or a system of this type.

An EUV collector has a reflection surface with a basic mirror shape of a spherical section. A diffraction grating for EUV used light is applied to the reflection surface. The diffraction grating is designed so that the EUV used light, which emanates from a sphere center of the spherical section, is diffracted by the diffraction grating toward a collection region. The collection region is spatially spaced apart from the sphere center. This creates an EUV collector in which an effective separation between EUV used light, which is to be collected with the aid of the collector, and extraneous light having a wavelength that differs from a used light wavelength is made possible.

A reflective optical element (17), in particular for an illumination optical unit of a projection exposure apparatus includes: a structured surface (25a) that preferably forms a grating structure (29), and a reflective coating (36) that is applied to the structured surface (25a). The reflective coating (36) covers the structured surface (25a) discontinuously, and the reflective optical element (17) has at least one protective layer (37) that covers the structured surface (25a) continuously. Also disclosed are an illumination optical unit (4) for a projection exposure apparatus (1) including at least one reflective optical element (17) of this type, to a projection exposure apparatus (1) including an illumination optical unit (4) of this type, and to a method for producing a protective layer (37) on a reflective optical element (17) of this type.

An illumination system for an EUV projection lithographic projection exposure apparatus comprises an EUV light source, which generates an output beam of EUV illumination light with a predetermined polarization state. An illumination optical unit guides the output beam along an optical axis, as a result of which an illumination field in a reticle plane is illuminated by the output beam. The light source comprises an electron beam supply device, an EUV generating device and a polarization setting device. The EUV generating device is supplied with an electron beam by the electron beam supply device. The polarization setting device exerts an adjustable deflecting effect on the electron beam for setting the polarization of the output beam. This results in an illumination system, which operates on the basis of an electron beam-based EUV light source and provides an output beam, which is improved for a resolution-optimized illumination.

A multilayer mirror (M) reflecting extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation from a first wavelength range in an EUV spectral region includes a substrate (SUB) and a stack of layers (SL). The stack of layers has layers having a low index material and layers having a high index material. The low index material has a lower real part of the refractive index than does the high index material at a given operating wavelength in the first wavelength range. The stack of layers also includes a spectral purity filter on the stack of layers. The spectral purity filter is effective as an anti-reflection layer for ultraviolet (UV) radiation from a second wavelength range in a UV spectral region to increase an EUV-UV-reflectivity ratio of the multilayer mirror. The spectral purity filter (SPF) includes a non-diffractive graded-index anti-reflection layer (GI-AR) effective to reduce reflectivity in the second wavelength range.

A lithography exposure system includes a light source, a substrate stage, and a mask stage between the light source and the substrate stage along an optical path from the light source to the substrate stage. The lithography exposure system further comprises a reflector along the optical path. The reflector comprises: a first layer having a first material and a first thickness; a second layer having the first material and a second thickness different from the first thickness; and a third layer between the first layer and the second layer, and having a second material different from the first material.

An extreme ultraviolet (EUV) collector inspection apparatus and method capable of precisely inspecting a contamination state of an EUV collector and EUV reflectance in accordance with the contamination state are provided. The EUV collector inspection apparatus includes a light source arranged in front of an EUV collector to be inspected and configured to output light in a visible light (VIS) band from UV rays, an optical device configured to output narrowband light from the light, and a camera configured to perform imaging from an UV band to a VIS band. An image by wavelength of the EUV collector is obtained by using the optical device and the camera and a contamination state of the EUV collector is inspected.

An EUV reflective structure includes a substrate and multiple pairs of a Si layer and a Mo layer. The Si layer includes a plurality of cavities.