Surface and thin film analysis by spectroscopic reflectometry with extreme ultraviolet emitting laboratory sources

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Methods for investigating thin films or surfaces with electromagnetic radiation date back decades, with some techniques like ellipsometry and reflectometry over a century old. Their industrial significance has remained strong, especially with the advent of lasers in the 1960s, which enhanced non-destructive metrology methods. Silicon, a crucial material, has spurred a vast industry that increasingly demands laboratory tools for characterizing wafers, masks, and thin films. As device miniaturization advances, traditional visible-range techniques are reaching their limits, necessitating the exploration of shorter wavelengths below 100 nm. Extreme ultraviolet radiation (XUV) offers new optical and analytical methods for lithography, microscopy, and reflectometry. While synchrotron sources have dominated this field, there's growing progress in developing compact laboratory XUV light sources, enabling tools that replicate accelerator techniques for direct user application. This work focuses on spectroscopic reflectometry using laboratory XUV sources, demonstrating a prototype with a compact plasma discharge source. This technique shows promise for analyzing ultra-thin films and interlayers under 10 nm, thanks to XUV light's strong interaction with materials, which enhances sensitivity to thickness, roughness, and chemical changes. The findings support the viability of surface-sensitive analysis with non-synchrotron XUV sources, cru