Pt thermal atomic layer deposition for silicon x-ray micropore optics

We fabricated a silicon micropore optic using deep reactive ion etching and coated by Pt with atomic layer deposition (ALD). We confirmed that a metal/metal oxide bilayer of Al2O3 similar to 10 nm and Pt similar to 20 nm was successfully deposited on the micropores whose width and depth are 20 mu m and 300 mu m, respectively. An increase of surface roughness of sidewalls of the micropores was observed with a transmission electron microscope and an atomic force microscope. X-ray reflectivity with an Al K alpha line at 1.49 keV before and after the deposition was measured and compared to ray-tracing simulations. The surface roughness of the sidewalls was estimated to increase from 1.6 +/- 0.2 nm rms to 2.2 +/- 0.2 nm rms. This result is consistent with the microscope measurements. Post annealing of the Pt-coated optic at 1000 degrees C for 2 h showed a sign of reduced surface roughness and better angular resolution. To reduce the surface roughness, possible methods such as the annealing after deposition and a plasma-enhanced ALD are discussed. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America