At the Advanced Light Source an undulator beamline, with an energy range from 6 to 30 eV, has been constructed for chemical dynamics experiments. The higher harmonics of the undulator are suppressed by a novel, windowless gas filter. In one branchline high-flux, 2% bandwidth radiation is directed toward an end station for photodissociation and crossed molecular-beam experiments. A photon flux of 10 16 photon/s has been measured at this end station. In a second branchline a 6.65 m off-plane Eagle monochromator delivers narrow bandwidth radiation to an end station for photoionoization studies. At this second end station a peak flux of 3 ϫ 10 11 was observed for 25 000 resolving power. This monochromator has achieved a resolving power of 70 000 using a 4800 grooves/mm grating, one of the highest resolving powers obtained by a vacuum ultraviolet monochromator.

This bending magnet beamline has been in operation since February 1995 for the characterization of optical elements (mirrors, gratings, multilayers, detectors, etc.) in the energy range 50-1000 eV. Although it was designed primarily for precision reflectometry of multilayer reflecting optics for EUV projection lithography, it has capabilities for a wide range of measurements. The optics consist of a monochromator, a reflectometer, and refocusing mirrors to provide a small spot on the sample. The monochromator is a very compact, entrance-slitless, varied-line-spacing plane-grating design in which the mechanically ruled grating operates in the converging light from a spherical mirror working at high demagnification. Aberrations of the mirror are corrected by the line spacing variation, so that the spectral resolving power λ/∆λ is limited by the ALS source size to about 7000. Wavelength is scanned by simple rotation of the grating with a fixed exit slit. The reflectometer has the capability of positioning the sample to within 10 µm and setting its angular position to 0.002°. LABVIEW™ based software provides a convenient interface to the user. The reflectometer is separated from the beamline by a differential pump and can be pumped down in 1/2 hour. Auxiliary experimental stations can be mounted behind the reflectometer. Results are shown that demonstrate the performance and operational convenience of the beamline.

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Techniques are described for at-wavelength interferometry of multilayer coated optics designed for use in extreme-ultraviolet lithography. Broadly tunable undulator radiation, which covers the spectral region from 45 to 400 A, is described. The coherent power available at these wavelengths is described, and several types of interferometer that might be suitable at these short wavelengths are also described.

The geometric theory of aspheric wave-front recording optics is extended to include the fourth-order groove parameters that correspond to the fourth-order holographic terms in the light-path function. We derived explicit expressions of the groove parameters by analytically following an exact ray-tracing procedure for a double-element optical system that consists of a point source, an ellipsoidal mirror, and an ellipsoidal grating blank. Design examples of holographic gratings for an in-plane Eagle-type vacuum-UV monochromator are given to demonstrate the capability of the present theory in the design of aspheric wave-front recording optics.

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Silver and tin slab targets were irradiated by line-focused chirped pulse amplification glass laser light. In this experiment, the laser pulses consisted of two pulses with 4 ps duration, separated by 1.2 ns. Strong amplification in the nickel-like silver and tin x-ray lasers at the wavelengths of 13.9 and 12.0 nm was demonstrated with pumping energy of 12 and 14 J, respectively, and gain-saturation behavior could be seen. A hydrodynamics simulation coupled with a collisional-radiative model was performed under the present experimental conditions, and the calculated result was compared with the experimental results.

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