A Novel monochromator for ultrashort soft X-ray pulses

Reflection zone plates (RZP), which consist of elliptical zone plates fabricated on a total external reflection mirror surface, can be effectively used to produce a monochromatic x-ray beam and to focus it at photon energies below 1400 eV. However, as RZPs are highly chromatic, they can be designed only for one specific photon energy. We alleviate this problem by using a novel approach: a Reflection Zone Plate Array (RZPA). Here, we report about successful implementation of novel monochromator based on RZPAs for experiments with 100 fs time resolution at the upgraded Femtoslicing facility at BESSY-II. Aiming at minimum losses in x-ray flux up to 2000 resolution, we fabricated and used an RZPA as a single optical element for diffraction and focusing. Nine Fresnel lenses, designed for the energies of 410 eV, 543 eV, 644 eV, 715 eV, 786 eV, 861 eV, 1221 eV and 1333 eV which correspond to the absorption edges of N-K, O-K, Mn-L, Fe-L, Co-L, Ni-L, Gd-M and Dy-M, were fabricated on the same substrate with a diameter of 100 mm At resolution E/Delta E up to 2000 all edges of other elements in that range (400-1400 eV) are covered, too.