New lithographic techniques for X-ray spectroscopy

Off-plane reflection gratings require high-fidelity, custom groove profiles to perform with high spectral resolution in a Wolter-I optical system. This places a premium on exploring lithographic techniques in nanofabrication to produce state-of-the-art gratings. The fabrication recipe currently being pursued involves electron-beam lithography (EBL) and reactive ion etching (RIE) to define the groove profile, wet anisotropic etching in silicon to achieve blazed grooves and UV-nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) to replicate the final product. A process involving grayscale EBL and thermal reflow known as thermally activated selective topography equilibration (TASTE) is also being investigated as an alternative method to fabricate these gratings. However, a master grating fabricated entirely in soft polymeric resist through the TASTE process requires imprinting procedures other than UV-NIL to explored. A commerically available process called substrate conformal imprint lithography (SCIL) has been identified as a possible solution to this problem. SCIL also has the ability to replicate etched silicon gratings with reduced trapped air defects as compared to UV-NIL, where it is difficult to achieve conformal contact over large areas. As a result, SCIL has the potential to replace UV-NIL in the current grating fabrication recipe.