Picosecond soft-X-ray laser interferometer for probing nanometer surface structure

Ochi, Yoshihiro; Terakawa, Kota*; Hasegawa, Noboru; Yamamoto, Minoru*; Tomita, Takuro*; Kawachi, Tetsuya; Minami, Yasuo*; Nishikino, Masaharu; Imazono, Takashi; Ishino, Masahiko; Suemoto, Toru*

We have developed a soft X-ray laser interferometer based on the double Lloyd's mirror and obtained a single shot interferogram by a 7-ps pulse at the wavelength of 13.9 nm. Micrometer grooves with 5-nm depth were successfully reconstructed from the interferogram. The lateral and depth resolutions were estimated to be 1.5 m and better than 1 nm, respectively. This interferometer will be an attractive diagnostic device for observing transiently changing nano-scale deviations on solid surfaces.