Abstract

Mo/Si multilayers (ML's) are attractive for x-ray optics due to the relatively high associated reflectivity. However, the reflectivity is known to decrease with the formation of diffuse interlayer regions resulting from interdiffusion at the Mo-Si interfaces [1-2]. Most of the previous studies have reported interdiffusion coefficients [1-4] and effective activation energies [2-4] over a range of temperature assuming that the interdiffusion coefficient is invariant with annealing time. Recent results by the authors [2] have suggested that there may be an initial "surge" contraction (~ 0.1- 0.2 nm) of the ML structure. Therefore, it is the objective of this study to perform a series of annealing treatments of Mo/Si ML's at relatively low temperatures to determine the Mo-Si interdiffusion kinetics as a function of time.

© 1992 Optical Society of America