X-ray properties and interface study of B4C/Mo and B4C/Mo2C periodic multilayers

Fadi Choueikani (1) , Françoise Bridou (1) , B. Lagarde (2) , Evgueni Meltchakov (1) , François Polack (2) , P. Mercere (2) , Franck Delmotte (1)

1 Laboratoire Charles Fabry / Optique XUV
2 SSOLEIL - Synchrotron SOLEIL

We present a comparative study of B4C/Mo and B4C/Mo2C periodic multilayer structures deposited by magnetron sputtering. The characterization was performed by grazing incidence X-ray reflectometry at two different energies and high resolution transmission electron microscopy. The experimental results indicate the existence of an interdiffusion layer at the B4C-on-Mo interface in the B4C/Mo system. Thus, the B4C/Mo multilayers were modeled by an asymmetric structure with three layers in each period. The thickness of B4C-on-Mo interfacial layer was estimated about 1.1 nm. The B4C/Mo2C multilayers present less interdiffusion and are well modeled by a symmetric structure without interfacial layers. This study shows that B4C/Mo2C structure is an interesting alternative to B4C/Mo multilayer for X-ray optic applications.

Domains: Optics [physics.optics]

Fadi Choueikani, Françoise Bridou, B. Lagarde, Evgueni Meltchakov, François Polack, et al.. X-ray properties and interface study of B4C/Mo and B4C/Mo2C periodic multilayers. Applied physics. A, Materials science & processing, 2013, 111 (1), pp.191-198. ⟨10.1007/s00339-013-7560-3⟩. ⟨hal-00820770⟩