Effect of separating layer thickness on W/Si multilayer replication.

The direct replication of W/Si multilayers and the effect of separating layer thickness on the performance of the multilayer before and after replication are investigated systematically. Platinum separating layers with different layer thicknesses were first deposited onto different supersmooth mandrels and then W/Si multilayers with the similar structure were deposited onto these Pt-coated mandrels by using a high vacuum DC magnetron sputtering system. After the deposition, these multilayers were replicated onto the commercially available float glass substrates by epoxy replication technique. These multilayers before and after replication are characterized by grazing-incident X-ray reflectance measurement and atomic force microscope. The measured results show that before and after replication, the reflectivity curves are much similar to those calculated and the surface roughness of each sample is close to that of the mandrel, when the separating layer thickness is larger than 1.5 nm. These results reveal that the W/Si multilayer with the separating layer thickness larger than 1.5 nm can be successfully replicated onto a substrate without modification of the structure, significant increase of surface roughness or apparent change of reflectivity.