A spectrometer includes a crystal analyzer having a radius of curvature that defines a Rowland circle, a sample stage configured to support a sample such that the sample is offset from the Rowland circle, x-ray source configured to emit unfocused x-rays toward the sample stage, and a position-sensitive detector that is tangent to the Rowland circle. A method performed via a spectrometer includes emitting, via an x-ray source, unfocused x-rays toward a sample that is mounted on a sample stage such that the sample is offset from the Rowland Circle, thereby causing the sample to emit x-rays that impinge on the crystal analyzer or transmit a portion of the unfocused x-rays to impinge on the crystal analyzer; scattering, via the crystal analyzer, the x-rays that impinge on the crystal analyzer; and detecting the scattered x-rays via a position-sensitive detector that is tangent to the Rowland circle.

An x-ray mirror optic includes a plurality of surface segments with quadric cross-sections having differing quadric parameters. The quadric cross-sections of the surface segments share a common axis and are configured to reflect x-rays in a plurality of reflections along a single optical axis or in a scattering plane defined as containing an incident x-ray and a corresponding reflected x-ray.

An apparatus includes a crystal analyzer positioned relative to an x-ray source on a Rowland circle. The crystal analyzer includes crystal planes curved along at least one direction and configured to receive x-rays from the x-ray source and to disperse the received x-rays according to Bragg's law. The apparatus further includes a spatially resolving detector that includes a plurality of x-ray detection elements having a tunable first x-ray energy and/or a tunable second x-ray energy. The plurality of x-ray detection elements are configured to measure received dispersed x-rays having x-ray energies below the first x-ray energy while suppressing measurements above the first x-ray energy and/or to measure the received dispersed x-rays having x-ray energies above the second x-ray energy while suppressing measurements below the second x-ray energy.

A spectrometer includes a crystal analyzer having a radius of curvature that defines a Rowland circle, a sample stage configured to support a sample such that the sample is offset from the Rowland circle, x-ray source configured to emit unfocused x-rays toward the sample stage, and a position-sensitive detector that is tangent to the Rowland circle. A method performed via a spectrometer includes emitting, via an x-ray source, unfocused x-rays toward a sample that is mounted on a sample stage such that the sample is offset from the Rowland Circle, thereby causing the sample to emit x-rays that impinge on the crystal analyzer or transmit a portion of the unfocused x-rays to impinge on the crystal analyzer; scattering, via the crystal analyzer, the x-rays that impinge on the crystal analyzer; and detecting the scattered x-rays via a position-sensitive detector that is tangent to the Rowland circle.

An X-ray fluorescence analyzer comprises an X-ray tube for emitting incident X-rays in the direction of a first optical axis. A slurry handling unit is configured to maintain a constant distance between a sample of slurry and the X-ray tube. A first crystal diffractor is located in a first direction from the slurry handling unit, and configured to separate a predefined first wavelength range from fluorescent X-rays that propagate into the first direction. It is configured to direct the fluorescent X-rays in the separated predefined first wavelength range to a first radiation detector. The input power rating of said X-ray tube is at least 400 watts. The first crystal diffractor comprises a pyrolytic graphite crystal. The optical path between said X-ray tube and the slurry handling unit is direct with no diffractor therebetween.

The present invention relates to a method, and a corresponding device, for testing a radius of curvature and/or for detecting inhomogeneities of a curved X-ray grating for a grating-based X-ray imaging device. The method comprises generating a beam of light diverging from a source point, propagating along a main optical axis and having a line-shaped beam profile. The method comprises reflecting the beam off a concave reflective surface of the grating. A principal axis of the concave reflective surface coincides with the main optical axis and the source point is at a predetermined distance from a point where the main optical axis intersects the concave reflective surface. The method comprises determining whether a projection of the reflected beam in a plane at or near the source point is present outside a central region around the source point, in which an absence of this projection outside the central region indicates that a radius of curvature of the concave reflective surface corresponds to the predetermined distance and/or that the reflective surface is substantially homogeneously curved along a curve formed by the beam impinging on the concave reflective surface.

A fluorescence mode x-ray absorption spectroscopy apparatus includes an electron bombardment source of x-rays, a crystal analyzer, the source and the crystal analyzer defining a Rowland circle having a Rowland circle radius (R), a detector, and at least one stage configured to position a sample at a focal point of the Rowland circle with the detector facing the sample.

A method of manufacturing an integrated circuit (IC) device includes forming a photoresist layer on a substrate, and exposing the photoresist layer to light by using a photolithographic apparatus including a light generator. The light generator includes a chamber having a plasma generation space, an optical element in the chamber, and a debris shielding assembly between the optical element and the plasma generation space in the chamber, and the debris shielding assembly includes a protective film facing the optical element and being spaced apart from the optical element with a protective space therebetween, the protective space including an optical path, and a protective frame to support the protective film and to shield the protective space from the plasma generation space.

Some embodiment describe a reflector comprising a hollow body having an interior surface defining a passage. The interior surface has an optical surface part configured to reflect radiation and a supporter surface part. The optical surface part has a predetermined optical power and the supporter surface part does not. The reflector can be made by providing an axially symmetric mandrel, shaping a part of the circumferential surface of the mandrel to form an inverse optical surface part that is not rotationally symmetric about the axis of the mandrel, forming a reflector body around the mandrel and releasing the reflector body from the mandrel whereby the reflector body has an optical surface defined by the inverse optical surface part and a supporter surface part defined by the rest of the outer surface of the mandrel.

An extreme ultraviolet chamber apparatus includes: a chamber; an EUV condensing mirror arranged in the chamber; a first nozzle arranged in an outer peripheral portion of the EUV condensing mirror and configured to feed a gas in a first direction along a reflective surface of the EUV condensing mirror; a second nozzle arranged in the outer peripheral portion of the EUV condensing mirror and configured to feed a gas in a second direction away from the EUV condensing mirror; and an exhaust port arranged in the chamber.