A mirror for extreme ultraviolet light includes: a substrate (41); a multilayer film (42) provided on the substrate and configured to reflect extreme ultraviolet light; and a capping layer (53) provided on the multilayer film, and the capping layer includes a first layer (61) containing an oxide of a metal, and a second layer (62) arranged between the first layer and the multilayer film and containing at least one of a boride of the metal and a nitride of the metal.

A microscope system for flexibly, efficiently and quickly inspecting patterns and defects on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography photomasks. The system includes a stand-alone plasma-based EUV radiation source with an emission spectrum with a freestanding line emission in the spectral range from 12.5 nm to 14.5 nm has a relative bandwidth of λ/Δλ>1000, means for the broadband spectral filtering λ/Δλ<50 for selecting the dominant freestanding emission line, means for suppressing radiation with wavelengths outside of the EUV spectral region, zone plate optics for magnified imaging of the object with a resolution which corresponds to the width of an outermost zone of the zone plate, a numerical aperture corresponding to more than 1000 zones, and a EUV detector array for capturing the patterned object.

A mirror including a substrate (110), a reflection layer system (120), and at least one continuous piezoelectric layer (130, . . . ) arranged between the substrate and the layer system. An electric field producing a locally variable deformation is applied to the piezoelectric layer via a first, layer-system-side electrode arrangement and a second, substrate-side electrode arrangement. At least one of the electrode arrangements is assigned a mediator layer (170) setting an at least regionally continuous profile of the electrical potential along the respective electrode arrangement. The electrode arrangement to which the mediator layer is assigned has a plurality of electrodes (160, . . . ), each of which is configured to receive an electrical voltage relative to the respective other electrode arrangement. In the region that couples two respectively adjacent electrodes, the mediator layer is subdivided into a plurality of regions (171, . . . ) that are electrically insulated from one another.

Provided is a substrate with a multilayer reflective film, the substrate being used for manufacturing a reflective mask blank and a reflective mask each having a multilayer reflective film having a high reflectance to exposure light and a low background level during defect inspection.

A substrate with a multilayer reflective film 110 comprises a substrate 1 and a multilayer reflective film 5. The multilayer reflective film 5 is formed of a multilayer film in which a low refractive index layer and a high refractive index layer are alternately layered on the substrate 1. The multilayer reflective film 5 comprises at least one additive element selected from hydrogen (H), deuterium (D), and helium (He). The additive element in the multilayer reflective film 5 has an atomic number density of 0.006 atom/nm.sup.3 or more and 0.50 atom/nm.sup.3 or less.

In a method for producing an optical element for an EUV projection exposure apparatus, a shaping layer (22.sub.1) is applied onto a substrate (20) so as to have a surface roughness of at most 0.5 nm rms directly after the application of the shaping layer onto the substrate.

A system for generating extreme ultraviolet light, in which a target material inside a chamber is irradiated with a laser beam to be turned into plasma, includes a first laser apparatus configured to output a first laser beam, a second laser apparatus configured to output a pedestal and a second laser beam, and a controller connected to the first and second laser apparatuses and configured to cause the first laser beam to be outputted first, the pedestal to be outputted after the first laser beam, and the second laser beam having higher energy than the pedestal to be outputted after the pedestal.

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) mask blanks, methods of forming EUV mask blanks and production systems therefor are disclosed. The EUV mask blanks comprise a multilayer reflective stack on a substrate. The multilayer reflective stack comprises a trilayer film including a first film, a second film, and a third film. Some EUV mask blanks include an interface layer on one or more of the first film, the second film and the third film. EUV mask blanks described herein have low Z.sub.eff and high reflectance over large bandwidth of reflection angle, thereby minimizing the M3D effect, especially for high-NA EUV scanners.

A mirror, e.g. for a microlithographic projection exposure apparatus, includes an optical effective surface, a mirror substrate, a reflection layer stack for reflecting electromagnetic radiation incident on the optical effective surface, at least one first electrode arrangement, at least one second electrode arrangement, and an actuator layer system situated between the first and the second electrode arrangements. The actuator layer system is arranged between the mirror substrate and the reflection layer stack, has a piezoelectric layer, and reacts to an electrical voltage applied between the first and the second electrode arrangements with a deformation response in a direction perpendicular to the optical effective surface. The deformation response varies locally by at least 20% in PV value for a predefined electrical voltage that is spatially constant across the piezoelectric layer.

A method of making a mirror for use with extreme ultraviolet or x-ray radiation includes: i) providing a base substrate having a curved surface, wherein the curved surface deviates from a curvature of a target mirror surface at high spatial frequencies corresponding to spatial periods less than 2 mm; and ii) securing a first side of a thin plate to the curved surface of the base substrate to cover the curved surface, wherein the plate has a thickness thin enough to conform to the curvature of the target mirror surface and thick enough to attenuate deviations at the high spatial frequencies on a second side of the thin plate opposite the first side that are caused by the deviations on the curved surface of the base substrate. A mirror made by the method is also disclosed.

An optical element (1)includes: a substrate (2), applied to the substrate (2), a multilayer system (3) which reflects EUV radiation (4), and applied to the multilayer system (3), a protective layer system (5) having an uppermost layer (5a). Nanoparticles (7) are embedded into the material of the uppermost layer (5a) of the protective layer system (5) which nanoparticles contain at least one metallic material. An EUV lithography system which includes at least one such optical element (1) designed as indicated above, and a method of forming nanoparticles (7) in the uppermost layer (5a) of the protective layer system (5) are also disclosed.