A reflective mirror is provided with a base and a multilayer film including first layers and second layers laminated alternately on the base and capable of reflecting at least a portion of the incident light. The multilayer film is provided with a first portion having a first thickness, and with a second portion which has a second thickness different from the first thickness and which is provided at a position rotationally symmetric to that of the first portion about the optical axis of the reflective mirror relative.

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.

This disclosure presents systems for total reflection x-ray fluorescence measurements that have x-ray flux and x-ray flux density several orders of magnitude greater than existing x-ray technologies. These may therefore useful for applications such as trace element detection and/or for total-reflection fluorescence analysis. The higher brightness is achieved in part by using designs for x-ray targets that comprise a number of microstructures of one or more selected x-ray generating materials fabricated in close thermal contact with a substrate having high thermal conductivity. This allows for bombardment of the targets with higher electron density or higher energy electrons, which leads to greater x-ray brightness and therefore greater x-ray flux. The high brightness/high flux source may then be coupled to an x-ray reflecting optical system, which can focus the high flux x-rays to a spots that can be as small as one micron, leading to high flux density.

A mirror (1a; 1a; 1b; 1b; 1c; 1c) with a substrate (S) and a layer arrangement configured such that light (32) having a wavelength below 250 nm and incident on the mirror at at least an angle of incidence of between 0 and 30 is reflected with more than 20% of its intensity. The layer arrangement has at least one surface layer system (P) having a periodic sequence of at least two periods (P3) of individual layers, wherein the periods (P3) include a high refractive index layer (H) and a low refractive index layer (L). The layer arrangement has at least one graphene layer. Use of graphene (G, SPL, B) on optical elements reduces surface roughness to below 0.1 nm rms HSFR and/or protects the EUV element against a radiation-induced volume change of more than 1%. Graphene is also employed as a barrier layer to prevent layer interdiffusion.

A pellicle that includes graphene is constructed and arranged for an EUV reticle. A multilayer mirror includes graphene as an outermost layer.

A mask for use in a speckle-based x-ray or neutron phase contrast imaging system and methods of making the mask are disclosed. The mask may either absorb or change the phase of the incident x-ray or neutron beam. The mask in various embodiments has consistent statistics across the mask, is locally unique (thereby avoiding ambiguous correlations), has a speckle size on the order of the imaging system's resolution, has a speckle pattern that is visible through the sample being imaged, and/or is matched to the energy level of the imaging system and the sample density. These mask attributes are controlled by the method and materials used in the fabrication of the mask. Various embodiments use a pseudo-random binary array for generating the required speckle pattern.

A multilayer collimator for a radiation detector comprises a first layer of a first attenuator material and a second layer of a second attenuator material, each having a coincident opening therethrough. The second attenuator material has an atomic mass smaller than that of the first attenuator material. The second layer continues into an extension departing from the plane of said second layer. There is at least one location in said second layer where a normal to the surface of said second layer passes through a part of said first layer and into said extension, for locking said first layer and second layer into an assembled configuration of the multilayer collimator.