Design and fabrication of advanced EUV diffractive elements

As extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography approaches commercial reality, the development of EUV-compatible diffractive structures becomes increasingly important. Such devices are relevant to many aspects of EUV technology including interferometry, illumination, and spectral filtering. Moreover, the current scarcity of high power EUV sources makes the optical efficiency of these diffractive structures a paramount concern. This fact has led to a strong interest in phase-enhanced diffractive structures. Here we describe recent advancements made in the fabrication of such devices.