Nanoscale EUV Microscopy on a Tabletop: A General
Transmission and Reflection Mode Microscope Based on
Coherent Diffractive Imaging with High Harmonic
Illumination
byMatthew Donald Seaberg
B.S., Bethel University, 2007

A thesis submitted to the
Faculty of the Graduate School of the
University of Colorado in partial fulfillmentof the requirements for the degree ofDoctor of Philosophy
Department of Physics
2014This thesis entitled:
Nanoscale EUV Microscopy on a Tabletop: A General Transmission and Reflection Mode
Microscope Based on Coherent Diffractive Imaging with High Harmonic Illumination
written by Matthew Donald Seaberg
has been approved for the Department of Physics

Margaret M. Murnane

Henry C. Kapteyn

Date

The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we find that both thecontent and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above
mentioned discipline.

iii
Seaberg, Matthew Donald (Ph.D., Physics)
Nanoscale EUV Microscopy on a Tabletop: A General Transmission and Reflection Mode Microscope Based on Coherent Diffractive Imaging with High Harmonic Illumination
Thesis directed by Prof. Margaret M. Murnane and Prof. Henry C. Kapteyn

A new scientific frontier exists at the intersection of the nanoscale and the ultrafast. In order
to explore this frontier, new tools with unique capabilities for imaging with nanometer spatial andfemtosecond temporal resolution are critical. This thesis describes the development of such a tool,
combining coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) with an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) high harmonic
generation (HHG) light source to produce a compact, accessible, high-resolution microscope. Here,this microscope is used to demonstrate 22 nm resolution in transmission, a record for any full-field
tabletop light-based microscope. Further, this microscope is used to demonstrate the most generalreflection mode implementation of CDI to date, enabling image reconstruction at any angle ofincidence.
Chapter 2 describes the optimization of the HHG source for use with CDI. A pulse shaper isimplemented to produce transform-limited pulses at 800 nm for increased HHG conversion efficiency.
Furthermore, the long-term stability of the HHG source is improved by an order of magnitude
through the pointing stabilization of the kHz driving laser. Chapter 3 develops the ideas necessary
for the data processing techniques that enable general reflection mode CDI. Chapter 4 describes
enhancements to the microscope to produce images with record 22 nm resolution in addition toextension of the microscope to image more complex, transmissive samples. Chapter 5 presents
the most general implementation of reflection mode CDI to date. In chapter 6, the route towards
dynamic femtosecond imaging of complex nanosystems is outlined, which includes potential for
simultaneous hyperspectral EUV imaging across multiple absorption edges.

Dedication

For my parents.

Acknowledgements

First, I need to thank my advisors Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn, who have been
extremely supportive, generous and encouraging, and who enable an amazing breadth of scientificresearch. It has been a pleasure to work in such a friendly, collaborative lab environment with accessto so many technical resources. I also need to thank Richard Sandberg and Daisy Raymondson,
who helped to get me started with EUV coherent imaging and who had already achieved a great
deal before I started on the project. Daisy in particular was instrumental in teaching me the basics
of ultrafast laser amplifier systems. I also want to thank Ethan Townsend, who always made thelab a fun place to be, and who I have missed very much since his life was cut short.
Of course, I need to acknowledge and thank the current KM group “imaging team,” consistingof Dan Adams, Bosheng Zhang, Dennis Gardner, and Liz Shanblatt. Dan has been a great leader
and motivator, has pushed and helped me to accomplish things that I wouldn’t have otherwise,and has had a hand in most of the work presented in this thesis in some way or other. He also
manages to combine a joking attitude with an eye towards serious progress, making the lab a fun
and productive place to work. Bosheng has also been an invaluable partner in the lab, with histremendous work ethic (as long as it doesn’t conflict with dinner) and his ability to always bringa smile to my face. His unique approach to and tremendous ability in physics have enabled many
new ideas in addition to stimulating discussions. While Dennis and Liz are relative newcomers
to the team, they have both been valuable additions. They have both contributed to the fun,productive lab environment. In relation to this thesis work, they both contributed to the EUV
reflection imaging project; Dennis helped with the experiment and the image reconstructions, andvi
Liz fabricated the test pattern. They are off to a great start in carrying this project forward. I
have also been very fortunate to work and interact in a variety of ways with the rest of the KM
group over the past six years.
Finally, I want to thank all my friends and family for the support they’ve provided during
my graduate career. I have been very fortunate to have wonderful roommates during my time in
Boulder, with whom I have shared adventures in the mountains as well as in the backyard roastinggoats etc. These people include Nathan Lemke, Tavi Semonin, Paul Arpin, Jia Wang, Mike FossFeig, Michael Gerrity, Will Kindel, Jen Harlow, Adam Kaufman, Andy Gisler, Joe Britton, andColin Lindsay. I want to thank my mom, my dad, and my brothers, Jonathan and Stephen, forall the love and support they have provided over the years. Finally, I want to thank my amazing
fiancée, Maasa Hosotani, for her love, support and encouragement.

Contents

Chapter
1 Introduction1

1.1

Visualizing the nanoworld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1

1.2

Imaging with extreme ultraviolet and X-ray light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4

1.2.1

Real-space Imaging Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5

1.2.2

Coherent Imaging Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

1.3

1.4

Coherent EUV and X-ray sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.3.1

Third-generation synchrotrons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

1.3.2

Free electron lasers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

1.3.3

EUV/Soft X-ray lasers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

1.3.4

High harmonic generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Overview of this thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

2 High Harmonic Generation Driven by Ultrafast Lasers

24

2.1

Introduction to ultrafast light sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

2.2

Compact chirped pulse amplification laser technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

2.3High harmonic generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.3.1

Three step model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

2.3.2

HHG phase matching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

2.3.3

Experimental parameters for HHG phase matching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

viii
2.4

2.5

Complete control of the HHG driving laser. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

2.4.1

Pulse shaping for temporal control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

2.4.2

Beam pointing stabilization for stable HHG sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Future prospects for HHG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

3 Coherent Diffractive Imaging with Ultrafast High Harmonic Sources
3.1

3.2

3.3

Diffraction theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
3.1.1

EUV/X-ray scattering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

3.1.2

EUV/X-ray diffraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Principle of CDI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
3.2.1

Oversampling in CDI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

3.2.2

Coherence requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

3.2.3

Phase retrieval in CDI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

HHG as a source for CDI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

4 Table-top CDI with HHG Sources in Transmission
4.1

4.2

4.3

93

High resolution CDI using 13 nm HHG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
4.1.1

Flux improvements to enable CDI at 13 nm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

4.1.2

Data collection and image reconstruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

4.1.3

Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

4.1.4

Simulation of diffraction from a thick, absorbing object . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Tabletop keyhole CDI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
4.2.1

Extended objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

4.2.2

Transparent objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

5 Coherent Diffractive Imaging in a Reflection Geometry
5.1

67

133

First attempts at tabletop reflection mode imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

ix
5.1.1
5.2

5.3

Reflection keyhole data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Ptychography in reflection mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
5.2.1

Experimental geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

5.2.2

Sample fabrication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

5.2.3

Results and Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

5.2.4

High Harmonic Beam Characterization Through Ptychography . . . . . . . . 148

5.2.5

Comparison between CDI reconstruction and SEM and AFM images . . . . . 150

Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

6 Future Work

154

6.1

Methods for dynamic imaging experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

6.2

Imaging with keV harmonics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

6.3

Concluding remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Bibliography

162

x

TablesTable
2.1

Ionization energies of noble gases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

2.2Standard deviations of focus position and angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

3.1

Formulas to calculate successive iterations for ER, HIO, DM and RAAR algorithms

4.1“Rejector” mirror reflectivity measurements at 13 nm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

88

Figures

Figure1.1

Schematic of a Fresnel zone plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7

1.2

Schematic of femtosecond slicing principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

2.1

Schematic of a typical Ti:sapphire oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

2.2

Schematic of a chirped pulse amplification system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

2.3

Tunnel ionization in argon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

2.4

Absorption-limited phase matching of HHG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

2.5

Schematic of a general frequency-domain pulse shaper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

2.6

Schematic of SLM-based pulse shaper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

2.7

Through-focus simulation of the pulse shaper output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

2.8

Spectral phase introduced by the pulse shaper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

2.9

Pulse shaper results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

2.10 Geometry for active beam pointing feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
2.11 Short-term centroid data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
2.12 Long-term centroid data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
2.13 Allan deviations of centroid data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
2.14 Amplitude spectral densities of centroid data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
2.15 Measured and theoretical closed-loop sensitivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
2.16 High harmonic beam images, stabilized and unstabilized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

xii
2.17 Integrated harmonic beam stability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3.1

Illustration of the source of the obliquity factor for s-polarized light. . . . . . . . . 74

3.2

Illustration of conical diffraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

3.3

Illustration showing the implications of finite temporal coherence . . . . . . . . . . . 85

4.1

“Rejector” mirror reflectivity at 13 nm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

4.2

“Rejector” mirror reflectivity at 800 nm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

4.3

13 nm waveguide gas pressure schemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

4.4

Waveguide end section transmission at 13 nm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

4.5

Coherent diffractive imaging 13 nm transmission geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

4.6

Image reconstructions at 13 nm, test pattern J409 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

4.7

Image reconstructions at 13 nm, test pattern J407 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

4.8

Phase retrieval transfer function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

4.9

Image reconstruction from 30 second exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

4.10 Ankylographic reconstruction, test pattern J407 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
4.11 Simulation of diffraction from a thick, absorbing object. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

4.12 Schematic of initial experimental geometry for tabletop keyhole CDI . . . . . . . . . 117
4.13 Extended test pattern imaged with keyhole CDI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
4.14 First tabletop keyhole CDI results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
4.15 Simulated and measured beam profiles for keyhole CDI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

4.16 Revised keyhole CDI experimental geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
4.17 Reconstructed illumination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
4.18 Tabletop keyhole results with a transparent object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
4.19 3D information from keyhole CDI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
5.1

Schematic for initial reflection mode experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

5.2

Initial reflection mode results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

xiii
5.3

Diffraction from 1 µm pillars in reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

5.4

Reflection ptychography schematic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

5.5

Reflection ptychography data and reconstruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

5.6

Height profile comparison between reflection CDI and AFM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

5.7

HHG beam reconstruction using ptychography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

5.8

HHG beam comparison at the detector plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

5.9

Comparisons between reflection CDI, SEM and AFM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

6.1

Keyhole reconstruction using knowledge of probe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

6.2

First EUV hyperspectral images based on ptychographical information multiplexing 158

6.3

HHG spectra for a variety of driving laser wavelengths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Chapter 1

Introduction

Many of the most important technological breakthroughs result from the exploration of new
frontiers in science. The frontiers of science can be found in hard-to-reach places such as outerspace, the depths of the ocean, and remote regions of Antarctica, but scientific frontiers also exist
all around us at length- and time-scales that are difficult to access.
One such current frontier exists at the nanoscale, that is, the regime of materials with dimensions on the nanometer (nm) scale. The nanoscale is inextricably linked to another current
frontier in science: the ultrafast (picosecond to attosecond) timescale. As physical systems shrink,
the timescales of dynamics typically shrink as well. Indeed, the speed of light is 300 nm/fs. Examples of this effect can be seen in spin and heat transport in nanomaterials, which can occur on
femtosecond (fs) and picosecond (ps) timescales, respectively [1, 2]. The link between nanoscaledimensions and ultrafast timescales provides the motivation for the work presented in this thesis,
which describes the development of a new microscope that enables the study of systems at nm
spatial scales and fs timescales simultaneously. Such a technology will ultimately push the limitsof our physical understanding of these exciting regimes.

1.1

Visualizing the nanoworld
The quest to understand structure, dynamics, and function at the nanoscale drives the devel-

opment of new ultrahigh-resolution imaging technologies. Microscopy techniques that have accessto nm (and below) spatial scales can be based on photon, electron, neutron, and atom (in scanning2probe microscopy) probes. In the case of atomic probes, the high spatial resolution is typicallyachieved by scanning a tip whose width consists of only one to several atoms at the point of interaction. Examples of atomic probes include atomic force microscopy (AFM) [3] and scanningtunneling microscopy (STM) [4]. Electron microscopy techniques, such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM) [5] and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), detect scattered electrons withde Broglie wavelengths that are shorter than the desired resolution. Super-resolution techniquesin the visible region of the spectrum are also capable of nm-scale resolution when certain criteria
are met. Finally, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and X-ray microscopy are extensions of visible lightmicroscopy, where high energy (short wavelength) scattered photons are detected. While all ofthese techniques are capable of nm-scale resolution, each offers different benefits and limitations,as discussed in the following paragraphs.
Microscopies which use atomic probes are typically grouped under the umbrella term scanningprobe microscopy (SPM). These microscopy techniques rely on interactions with surfaces in the“near field”; the surface is typically only separated from the probe tip by several angstroms. Whilethese techniques can be capable of atomic resolution [6,7], they can only be used to image surfaces.
Some of these techniques have recently been extended to be capable of fs temporal resolution [8, 9].
However, these techniques are point-by-point scanning methods, meaning that raster scans mustbe performed in order to capture full images.
Electron microscopy is well established as a powerful method for obtaining images with subnm resolution, but cannot penetrate thick (i.e. > 100 nm) samples, and can suffer from a relatively
low image contrast. SEM images only contain surface information, and TEM imaging, which canaccess 3D information, requires thin samples due to the strong interaction between electrons andmatter. While the resolution of electron microscopes is fundamentally limited only by the de Broglie
wavelength of the electrons (often < 10 pm), the practical resolution of these microscopes is usuallyaberration-limited to > 1 Å. However, recent work has resulted in ≈ 50 pm resolution using highorder aberration correction in a scanning TEM (STEM) [10]. Most electron microscopes have poor
temporal resolution, although stroboscopic techniques have recently been developed which allow

3
for sub-ps resolution [11]. However, these techniques require that only a single electron is detected
at a time, meaning that many measurements must be made to build up a single image.
Super-resolution optical imaging techniques such as multiphoton microscopy [12], stimulated
emission depletion microscopy (STED) [13, 14], photo-activated localization microscopy (PALM)
and stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) have made impressive progress using
visible light for super-resolution imaging [15, 16]. However, these techniques rely on scanning or
on sparsely emitting labeled samples, where the centroid of single fluorescent molecules in thesample can be located down to 10 nm precision. Techniques that require labeling are useful whenfunctional groups can be reliably and selectively labeled. However, this approach is invasive, timeconsuming, and requires considerable prior knowledge of the system. Powerful and widely-usedlabel-free techniques such as multiphoton [17] or CARS microscopy [18] avoid these issues, but
require scanning and yield only modestly higher spatial resolution than conventional techniquessuch as confocal microscopy.
EUV/X-ray microscopy is a general-purpose nanoscale imaging technique that complements
scanning probe, electron, and visible wavelength microscopies because it can penetrate thick samples(allowing for 3-D imaging) and achieve very high spatial resolution with the added advantages of
elemental and chemical specificity. To date, X-ray microscopy has been implemented primarily
using light from synchrotron radiation facilities, with demonstrated spatial resolutions down to
15 nm using zone plate based microscopes [19]. X-ray microscopy has also proven to be uniquelycapable of 3-D tomographic imaging of whole, 5 µm diameter, single cells with 50 nm spatial
resolution [20, 21] and in 2-D with 11 nm resolution [22].
There are a variety of EUV/X-ray sources used for microscopy, including third generation synchrotrons [23], free electron lasers (FELs) [24], EUV lasers [25–27], laser-produced plasma emission
sources [28, 29], and high-harmonic generation [30, 31]. Each source has its own unique characteristics, such as temporal resolution, coherence and brightness, which affect what imaging modalities
can be performed. In the following section, a variety of the imaging techniques that make use ofthis type of nanoscale probe will be described.

4

1.2

Imaging with extreme ultraviolet and X-ray light
Taking advantage of the short wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and X-ray light toaccess information at the nm spatial scale (and below) is an old idea. X-ray crystallographers
have been using X-ray diffraction to probe crystal structure ever since Laue’s discovery of X-ray
diffraction peaks more than 100 years ago [32]. However, it wasn’t until much later that X-ray
microscopy took hold with the development of Kirkpatrick-Baez (KB) glancing incidence reflective
focusing systems in the 1940’s [33] and EUV and X-ray Fresnel zone plates in the 1970’s [34–36].
Both of these types of EUV/X-ray focusing elements are limited in resolution by the numericalaperture (NA) and fabrication quality of the optics. Additionally, Fresnel zone plates require highflux light sources due to poor diffraction efficiency.
A new technique known as coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) has more in common with
X-ray crystallography; in order to retrieve a high-resolution image, the intensity of the diffraction
pattern of an object, rather than a direct image, is recorded. This technique was first demonstrated
in the visible region of the spectrum [37], and only demonstrated in the X-ray region of the spectrum
15 years ago [38]. The advantage of CDI over more conventional forms of imaging lies in the factthat the resolution of the images obtained with this technique is only limited by the wavelength oflight and the NA of the detector used to collect the scattered light. Images can be retrieved via
the Fourier transform relationship between a scatterer and its diffraction pattern.
The advantage in resolution comes with a price. The reduced optical complexity of this typeof “imaging” system is replaced with increased computational complexity. While specific techniquessuch as Fourier transform holography (FTH) and its variants allow images to be retrieved througha single Fourier transform of the recorded diffraction pattern, the most general implementationof CDI requires phase retrieval of the measured diffraction intensity [39]. Below, the differences
between direct real-space imaging and coherent techniques is discussed in more detail.

5
1.2.1

Real-space Imaging Techniques

Traditional refractive lenses are impossible to manufacture in the EUV and X-ray spectrum,
due to the fact that the index of refraction of most materials is very close to unity for photon energies
above 30 eV [40]. Thus, forming a direct image using EUV/X-ray light requires either reflective
or diffractive optics. In this section, strengths and limitations of objective-based, full-field imaging
methods will be discussed.
Multilayer mirrors can be manufactured in the EUV region of the spectrum with relatively
high reflectivities at normal incidence [41]. This is the basis for the semiconductor industry’s
choice of 13.5 nm as the next lithography wavelength candidate to increase computer chip patterndensity [42, 43]. The lithography process involves a mirror-based, 4× demagnification system frommask to wafer. However, while it is possible to fabricate normal-incidence mirrors in the soft X-ray
region, tolerances are stricter and reflectivities are lower (≈ 70%) than for visible optics [44]. In thehard X-ray region, materials are only reflective at glancing incidence, meaning that mirror-based
imaging requires the use of KB-type systems [45, 46].
As with any linear imaging system, the highest resolution, dmin , of a mirror-based imaging
system is limited by the wavelength and numerical aperture (NA) of the system via the Abbé
diffraction limit todmin =

λλ=,2n sin θ
2NA

(1.1)

where λ is the illumination wavelength, n is the index of refraction of the medium between thesample and the imaging optic, and θ is the collection angle of the imaging optic. Whereas forvisible light microscopy, the index of refraction, n, can be increased using oil immersion techniques
in order to increase resolution, EUV/X-ray microscopy typically requires light propagation to occur
in vacuum, so that in Eqn. (1.1) n = 1. The diffraction limit represents the best possible resolution
a linear imaging system can achieve.
In practice, the diffraction limit is very difficult to achieve due to imperfections in the imaging
optics, which cause aberrations in the resulting image and worsen the achievable resolution. Some

6
aberrations, such as spherical aberration, are inherent to spherical mirrors. This type of aberration
can be reduced using aspherical optics such as elliptical and hyperbolic mirrors. Other aberrations
such as astigmatism, coma, and defocus come from imperfect alignment and from mirror imperfections. For instance, in order to achieve the diffraction limit, the shape of the mirror surface must
typically be correct to length scales smaller than the desired resolution. This is particularly difficult,and expensive, to achieve at hard X-ray wavelengths. For this reason, most mirror-based imaging
systems in the X-ray region do not achieve very high resolution. However, these systems still haveadvantages over visible-light microscopes because of the elemental contrast and long penetration
depths of X-ray light [45, 47, 48]. Nevertheless, mirror-based full field microscopes with resolution
below 50 nm are possible and are under development [46, 49].
Due to the difficulties of alignment and fabrication of mirror-based EUV/X-ray imaging
systems, much effort has been put towards the development of Fresnel zone plate-based microscopes.
A Fresnel zone plate is a diffraction-based imaging optic, and is essentially an approximation toa Fresnel lens. In contrast to a traditional (or Fresnel) lens, a zone plate has additional, highorder foci as well as an unfocused zeroth order. These additional orders are the result of highorder diffraction (higher-order foci) and undiffracted light (zeroth order). A zone plate consists ofmany concentric rings, or “zones”; in the simplest case the zones alternate between transparent andopaque, with radii such that the transparent zones interfere constructively at the focus (depicted
in Fig. 1.1). This type of zone plate has a theoretical efficiency of only 10% at the first-order
focus. In order to achieve higher efficiency, the opaque zones can be replaced with material of thecorrect thickness such that these zones impart a phase shift of π relative to the transparent zones.
Assuming there is no absorption in the phase-shifted zones, the first-order efficiency is increased to40%.
The radius of the nth zone, rn , can be calculated geometrically by determining the transverse
distance from the optical axis at which the phase will shift by nπ (equivalent to an optical path
length difference of λ/2) at a distance f along the optical axis, as shown in Fig. 1.1. Simply making

7

Figure 1.1: Schematic of a Fresnel zone plate. The radius of each zone is chosen such that adjacentzones have a path length difference of λ/2 to the focus, as depicted in the figure. Figure adaptedfrom Attwood [50].

8use of the Pythagorean theorem, this condition can be expressed as

2
nλ
2
2
rn + f =+f .
2Upon solving for the radius of the nth zone, Eqn. 1.2 becomes
s
 2
nλ
.
rn = nλf +
2

(1.2)

(1.3)

In order to gain an understanding of what is required to obtain high resolution in a zone plate
imaging system, it is instructive to calculate the outermost zone width of a zone plate “lens”
described by Eqn. (1.3) and relate this to the NA of that lens, which limits the resolution as in
Eqn (1.1). When the approximation that the focal length is large compared to the zone plate
diameter is made (meaning NA is small), Eqn. (1.3) can be rewritten as
rn ≈

p
nλf .

(1.4)

This approximation simplifies the calculation of the outermost zone width, ∆rN , which can beobtained directly as
∆rN =

p
p
N λf − (N − 1)λf .

(1.5)

Squaring both sides of Eqn. (1.5) yields


p
2
∆rN
= 2N − 2 N (N − 1) − 1 λf.

(1.6)

If we make the further approximation that N  1, then to lowest order the outermost zone width
is
2
∆rN
=





1
λf
2N − 2N − 1 −+ · · · − 1 λf ≈
.
4N
4N

(1.7)

If we insert rN in place of N using Eqn. (1.4), we have
∆rN ≈

λf
.
2rN

(1.8)

Rearranging Eqn. (1.8) gives an expression for the NA of the system (here defined as rN /f for the
low-NA case) in terms of the outermost zone width,
NA ≈

λ
.
2∆rN

(1.9)

9
Finally, this allows us to calculate the diffraction-limited resolution of a given zone plate using
Eqn. (1.1), which turns out to simply bedmin ≈ ∆rN .

(1.10)

This simple relation implies that fabrication quality must be extremely high in order to achieve highresolution using a zone plate objective. Indeed, record zone plate-based image resolution of 10-15 nm
has only been achieved through complex multi-step fabrication processes. One such process involves
two patterning steps in which an overlay must be performed with few-nm accuracy [19, 51, 52], toobtain outer zone widths down to 12 nm. The other process involved an e-beam patterning step
followed by a deposition step that effectively doubles the number of zones, and decreases the outerzone widths by a factor of two [53, 54].
The above discussions have been related to traditional absorption-contrast imaging. However,sometimes absorption contrast in semi-transparent samples (such as biological cells) is weak [55]. In
this case, phase contrast imaging ideas which were originally developed for visible light microscopy[56] have been applied to zone plate microscopy as well, with phase contrast resolution as high as
25 nm through relatively simple modifications to the imaging system [57, 58]. Quantitative phase
information is still difficult to obtain in these systems, even though phase differences are the sourceof image contrast [55].
A major difference between mirror-based and zone plate-based full field microscopes is thesensitivity to chromatic aberrations, which come from changes in focal length as a function of
wavelength. Fully reflective systems have focal lengths independent of the wavelength of light,
whereas zone plates are strongly chromatic. This can be seen by solving for the focal length from
Eqn. (1.8), which isf≈

2rN ∆rN,
λ(1.11)

showing that for a given zone plate design, the focal length is inversely proportional to wavelength.
While designs have been proposed to slightly reduce the chromaticity of zone plate optics [59], they
have yet to be demonstrated experimentally. However, the relative ease of alignment of on-axis zone

10
plate objectives in contrast to glancing-incidence mirror systems means zone plates are much more
widely used in EUV/X-ray microscopes. Both mirror-based and zone plate full-field microscopes
are limited in resolution by the manufacturability of the optics. In order to take full advantage ofthe high resolution potential of short wavelength light, coherent imaging techniques are needed.

1.2.2

Coherent Imaging Techniques

The direct imaging techniques described above are necessary when using incoherent lightsources, and are still useful for coherent sources as well. However, the availability of spatiallycoherent light sources enables alternative approaches for high resolution EUV/X-ray microscopy.
These alternative approaches can be classified as either point scanning techniques or diffractionbased techniques. As will be described below, there is some overlap between these two classes ofcoherent imaging techniques.

1.2.2.1

Scanning X-ray transmission microscopy

Scanning X-ray transmission microscopes (STXM) take advantage of highly spatially coherent
sources to focus X-rays to extremely small spots. Focusing can be accomplished using KB mirror
systems [60], condenser zone plates (CZPs) [53], multilayer Laue lenses (MLLs) [61], and, at highphoton energies, compound refractive lenses [62, 63]. Images are formed pixel by pixel by scanning
the object across the beam focus, with resolution limited by the focused spot size of the EUV/X-ray
beam and by the scanning step size.
Resolution for KB systems and CZP systems is limited in the same ways as what is describedabove in the case of full-field imaging, based on Eq. (1.1) for the KB case and Eq. (1.10) for the
CZP case. This is clearly the case due to the reciprocity theorem (first attributed to Helmholtz),
which states that the source and observation points in optical systems are interchangeable [64].
Essentially, conversion from a full field microscope to a scanning microscope consists of performing
this interchange in addition to reversing the direction of light propagation through the optical

11system. More simply put, the object and image distances, do and di , in the lens maker’s equation,
1
1
1
+ ,
=
f
do di

(1.12)

where f is the focal length, are interchangeable. In STXM, the source is demagnified at the beamfocus by the same amount as an object would be magnified if it were placed at the beam focus
position and illuminated from the opposite direction, with its image formed at the location where
the source would be in STXM. Interestingly, this equivalence was recently taken advantage of toachieve Zernike phase contrast in a STXM geometry [65].
MLLs are a new type of diffractive optic, and are essentially one-dimensional versions ofzone plates [66]. While focusing in two dimensions requires two MLLs, their potential advantage
over CZPs comes from a simpler fabrication process. Typically, zone plates require lithographic
patterning, whereas MLLs can be fabricated via sputtering. The simplified process offers promise ofsmaller zone widths relative to what is possible with zone plate fabrication, causing speculation that
MLLs are the way towards focusing to 1 nm spot size [67,68]. Thus far the best resolution obtained
was 11 nm [61]. Other work has shown possibilities for zone plate fabrication via deposition,
allowing for high aspect ratios combined with 5 nm outer zone width [69]. The zone plate is coatedlayer by layer on a rotating wire, and sliced to the desired thickness afterwards using a focused ion
beam (FIB). While this fabrication technique shows promise, the zone plates manufactured in thisway have not yet been applied to imaging.
While it is stated in the previous section that traditional refractive lenses are impossible
to fabricate for EUV/X-rays, this statement needs some qualification. The fact that the index ofrefraction is very close to one for all materials across the EUV/X-ray range means that any refractive
lens must be very thick in order to achieve any significant amount of focusing. This means that thistype of refractive lens can only be made for hard X-rays, because materials are too absorbing at lower
photon energies. The first demonstration of a refractive X-ray lens was a compound lens consistingof 30 adjacent 300 µm-diameter cylinders bored in an Al-Cu alloy [62]. This first demonstration
was not overly ambitious and produced an 8 µm focus size. More recent demonstrations have

12
produced focus diameters as small as 50 nm, using parabolic compound lenses [63]. As with MLLs,
most refractive X-ray lenses produced thus far focus in only one dimension, so that to focus inboth dimensions two lenses oriented perpendicularly to each other are needed. Recent work has
also resulted in initial demonstrations of 3D lenses capable of focusing in two dimensions [70, 71].
While coherent scanning techniques are capable of achieving very high resolution, they areunable to provide simultaneous amplitude and phase information about the object under study.
In order to measure this kind of information, phase retrieval techniques such as holography or
coherent diffractive imaging are needed. These techniques are capable of retrieving the complexvalued electric field scattered by an object, rather than simply providing amplitude or phase contrast
separately.

1.2.2.2

Coherent diffractive imaging

The other main class of coherent imaging in the EUV/X-ray region is based on measurementof scattered, or diffracted, light. Coherent diffractive imaging (CDI), as it is known, encompasses
a relatively broad range of techniques, connected by measurement of diffraction intensities with no
optics between the object being studied and the detector. Thus, the geometry is very similar to
STXM, with the exception that the point detector used for STXM is replaced with a pixel detector,
typically a charge-coupled device (CCD). The CCD detector measures the intensity, but not thephase, of the light scattered by the object. In order to recover an image of the object, the phaseof the scattered light must be retrieved using one of a number of techniques. These phase retrieval
techniques can be classified as either direct or iterative, where direct techniques require some formof holographic measurement and iterative techniques rely on one or more constraints to solve thetwo-dimensional (2D) phase retrieval problem [72, 73].
In contrast to STXM, high resolution is achieved by the collection of diffraction at highangles (high NA, as in Eq. (1.1)) instead of being limited to the size of a nano-focused X-ray
beam [38], thus removing the need for reliance on high resolution optical elements. Additionally,
CDI is a full-field imaging technique, so while the experimental geometry is similar to STXM,

13
the resulting image shares more similarity with objective-based techniques, with the 2D phaseretrieval algorithm replacing the imaging optic. Images reconstructed using CDI contain both
amplitude and phase contrast, similar to the Zernike approaches discussed above. A significant
difference, however, is that both the amplitude and phase information in the reconstructed image
are necessarily quantitative as a result of the 2D phase retrieval process. Finally, because there
are no optics between the object and the detector, virtually no aberrations are introduced into theimaging system. As a result, researchers have already achieved resolutions below 10 nm in two andthree dimensions using CDI [74–76].
The limitations of the technique include the necessity of a fully spatially coherent light source
as well as the need to satisfy one or more constraints, which can be enforced during the iterative
reconstruction by projecting the solution onto sets defined by these constraints in a generalized
Gerchberg-Saxton scheme [77]. The original Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm involved retrieving thephase by enforcing a modulus constraint in both the image and diffraction space [78]. Enforcing a
modulus constraint means requiring the solution to be consistent with measured intensities, whileleaving the current solution to the phase unchanged.
Most CDI phase retrieval techniques involve applying a modulus constraint in the diffraction
space and one of a variety of types of support constraints in the image space. This means that, witha couple of exceptions [79], either the object or the illumination must be confined to a limited size
specified by the geometry of the experiment. The requirement of a finite support is equivalent torequiring that the diffraction pattern must be “oversampled” [80]. Oversampling refers to sampling
the diffraction amplitude at a spatial frequency beyond the Nyquist frequency. The various available
constraints and phase retrieval algorithms will be described in detail in Ch. 3.
Finally, traditional CDI requires the illumination to be monochromatic. However, one of
the clear strengths of CDI is that by introducing additional computational steps, experimental
requirements can be relaxed. For instance, CDI can be extended for use with broadband sources
simply by numerically propagating each part of the spectrum independently between the object
and detector planes [81]. Additional work has shown that the spatial coherence requirements can

14also be relaxed to allow for partial coherence [82–84].
It was stated above that there is some overlap between STXM and CDI. As a result of thesimilarity in experimental geometry between the two techniques, many STXM microscopes havebeen upgraded to have pixel detectors in order to be compatible with a new branch of CDI called
ptychography CDI [85, 86]. Ptychography CDI is an extension of an imaging technique developed
for TEM starting in the 1970’s [87, 88]. Ptychography involves scanning an object across theilluminating EUV/X-ray beam, similarly to the STXM procedure. However, rather than being
limited by the illumination size and distance between scan positions, the resolution is only limitedby the NA of the recorded diffraction patterns at each position. Ptychography solves for the object
and illumination functions independently; thus any non-uniformity in illumination is factored out
during the image reconstruction [89]. Due to the wealth of information present in a ptychographic
dataset, many generalizations to the technique have been proposed and demonstrated since theinitial demonstration of ptychography, including but not limited to extension to 3D imaging [90]and extension to broadband sources [91]. Some of these generalizations will be described in Ch. 3.
CDI clearly has much to offer in terms of nanoscale imaging capabilities. Similarly to holography, CDI techniques enable reconstruction of the complex amplitude of the scattered electricfield. However, CDI removes limitations on resolution which are typically imposed by holographic
techniques. In order to take advantage of this new class of techniques, light sources with both hightemporal and spatial coherence are needed.

1.3

Coherent EUV and X-ray sources
Despite the clear potential for EUV/X-ray CDI microscopes to enable rapid advances in the

nano- and bio-sciences, accessibility to these microscopes is limited, because they are primarily
located at a small number of large synchrotron or x-ray free electron laser (FEL) light sources.
Fortunately, in recent years rapid advances in compact coherent short wavelength light sources
based on high harmonic generation (HHG) [31, 92] and EUV and soft X-ray lasers [26, 27, 93] haveopened up new capabilities in tabletop EUV/soft X-ray microscopy. Brief descriptions of these four

15
types of coherent light sources follow.

1.3.1

Third-generation synchrotrons

Historically, the first source of coherent X-rays was the synchrotron, which was pioneered in
the 1950’s. The original synchrotrons were developed originally for the study of particle physics [94],with X-ray emission as a byproduct [95]. These original synchrotron facilities are classified as firstgeneration sources. Some of these facilities were converted completely to light sources, moving
away from particle physics research; these facilities are classified as second-generation sources. In
the 1990’s, new synchrotrons were designed specifically as dedicated high brilliance light sources,
ushering in the era of third-generation facilities [96].
A third-generation synchrotron facility consists of several components. The main component
is the storage ring, which is a roughly circular tube which the electrons traverse at relativistic
speeds. Bending magnets spaced around the circumference of the storage ring serve to bend the
trajectory of the electrons along the storage ring, as well as produce broadband X-ray beams due tothe centripetal acceleration of the electrons at these points. Finally, so-called insertion devices areplaced in the straight sections between the bending magnets. One type of insertion device, called
an undulator, is the main source of high-brilliance X-ray beams at third generation synchrotrons.
Each undulator sends an X-ray beam to an end station set up for a particular type of scientificmeasurement. A typical synchrotron facility has 50 or fewer of these end stations.
Undulators consist of periodic arrays of magnets which induce transverse oscillation in theelectron beam that produce narrow-band, coherent X-ray radiation. The wavelengths that areradiated can be calculated from the following equation, (see Jackson for derivation [97]):
λ0
λ=
2nγ 2



K2
2 2
1+
+γ θ ,
2(1.13)

where λ0 is the spatial period of the magnet array, n is the harmonic number, γ is the relativistic
factor based on the electrons’ energy, θ is the emission angle, and K is a dimensionless deflection
parameter based on the magnetic field strength and the geometry. K is equal to eBλ0 /2πmc2 ,16
where e is the charge of an electron, B is the magnetic field amplitude in the lab frame, m is themass of an electron, and c is the speed of light. Thus for small deflection parameters K, the on-axis
emission is simply at harmonics of λ0 /2γ 2 , which is purely geometric after taking into account theLorentz transformations from the lab frame to the electron frame and back again. As can be seenfrom Eq. (1.13), the peaks can be tuned by adjustment of the magnetic field strength. This canalso be understood geometrically via the fact that the axial velocity of the electrons is decreased
as the deflection parameter is increased.
The simplest type of undulator induces roughly sinusoidal electron trajectories, generating
linearly polarized light. However, the magnet arrays can be arranged in such a way to induce helicaltrajectories, providing light sources with circular polarization. This can be useful for studies wherematerials respond differently depending on the helicity of light, as in the case of X-ray magnetic
circular dichroism (XMCD). In terms of coherent flux, a typical undulator can provide on theorder of 1011 photons/s in a 0.1% bandwidth. While undulator light sources provide tunable, highbrilliance X-ray sources (meaning high photon flux in a narrow bandwidth and narrow divergenceangle), these sources have relatively poor temporal resolution in comparison to fs timescales needed
for ultrafast studies; typical pulse durations are 10’s of picoseconds long [23].
Techniques such as fs slicing exist for achieving better temporal resolution. The principle of fs
slicing is depicted schematically in Fig. 1.2. A ≈50 fs, 2 mJ laser pulse propagates collinearly withthe electron bunch through an undulator, modulating the energy of some of the electrons at thecenter of the bunch by up to 1% of their initial energy due to the high electric field of the laser pulse.
The electron bunch is then sent into a bending magnet, which angularly disperses the electronsof different energy. This bending magnet is followed by a second undulator which produces X-ray
radiation. The “sliced” bunch of electrons produces an X-ray pulse of ≈100 fs duration, which isseparated from the main ≈50 ps pulse with an aperture. However, this process is very inefficient,resulting in 10−4 × fewer photons than are produced by the unmodulated bunch, greatly reducing
the total X-ray flux. Furthermore, this technique dramatically increases the complexity of thesystem, requiring high-precision synchronization between the fs laser and the electron bunches.

17

Figure 1.2: Schematic of the fs slicing principle. A fs laser pulse propagates collinearly with theelectron bunch through an undulator, modulating the energy of electrons at the center of thebunch. Hence this undulator is termed the “modulator” as labeled above. The electron bunchthen passes through a bend magnet, which angularly disperses the electrons according to energy. A
second undulator, termed the “radiator”, produces X-ray radiation. An aperture placed beyond theradiator selects only the radiation from the “sliced” electrons. The main electron bunch continues
along the trajectory of the storage ring. The alternating dark and light zones in the undulators
represent alternating magnetic field directions. Figure adapted from [98].

18
1.3.2

Free electron lasers

Recent years have seen the introduction of a new coherent EUV/X-ray source: the FEL,
which has been called the fourth-generation synchrotron. FELs build on the ideas that are thefoundation for undulator light sources. Namely, relativistic electrons produce radiation due tosinusoidal trajectories induced by an alternating magnetic field. The difference lies in the fact thatin an FEL, the electron bunch can be considered to act as a gain medium due to its interaction
with the collinearly propagating electromagnetic wave (see Saldin et al. [99] for details). The firstexperimental observation of amplification by stimulated emission using relativistic electrons as again medium dates as far back as the 1970’s, with the amplification of a 10.6 µm CO2 laser [100].
However, it wasn’t until 2005 that FELs were pushed to soft X-ray wavelengths for the first timeat DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron) [24].
FELs operating in the visible and infrared (IR) can operate as amplifiers or oscillators in the
traditional sense, due to the availability of resonant optical cavities in this wavelength range. In
the case of an oscillator, electron bunches from an external source such as a linear accelerator orstorage ring are synchronized to the round trip time of the cavity in order to overlap in time withthe laser pulse. However, in the EUV/X-ray region, FELs can only be operated in a single-passmode. This can mean either operation as an amplifier or as a self-amplified spontaneous emission(SASE) FEL. In order to reach gain saturation, the undulator in a SASE FEL must be much longer(5-10 ×) than what is typical for undulators used as insertion devices [24].
In a SASE FEL, “spontaneous emission” at the front end of the undulator stimulates further
emission along the undulator. At the output of the undulator, the resulting pulses contain 1012 −1013
photons [101]. Operating at 120 Hz, this corresponds to 103 − 104 times the average photon fluxof a third-generation synchrotron. Additionally, these photons arrive in pulse widths <50 fs, incontrast to ≈50 ps from an undulator source.
While the spatial coherence of these X-ray beams is very high, the temporal coherence islimited due to the fact that the SASE amplification process starts from noise. This means that the19
temporal and spectral profiles of the pulse from shot-to-shot exhibit large variations [102]. Thissituation can be improved by injecting a seed pulse into the undulator, effectively using the FEL
as an amplifier. Seeding can be accomplished in a variety of ways. One option is to produce theseed pulse with a separate source, such as using HHG. Preliminary demonstrations of HHG seedingat EUV wavelengths show promise, but are plagued by difficult technical challenges such as timing
jitter between the seed and the electron bunch [103–105]. Another type of external seeding is calledhigh gain harmonic generation (HGHG) [106]. In HGHG, an external seed laser is used to modulate
the energy of the electron beam in a modulator undulator (similar to what is described above for fs
slicing). The electron beam is then sent through a dispersion section, resulting in spatial bunchingof the electrons along the direction of propagation spaced by the laser wavelength. Finally, theelectron beam is sent into a second, very long, undulator (analogous to the radiator used in fs
slicing) tuned to a harmonic of the seed laser. The resulting EUV or X-ray beam produced fromthis type of seeded FEL has much better temporal coherence properties than what is produced in
the SASE process [107]. So far, HGHG seeding has been successfully demonstrated at EUV andsoft X-ray wavelengths at the FERMI FEL in Italy [108].
Another option for producing a temporally coherent X-ray FEL beam is to use a process
called self-seeding. This type of seeding again involves two undulators as in HGHG, except in thiscase both undulators are tuned to the same wavelength. Here, the first undulator operates using
SASE in order to generate the seed. The seed is then spectrally filtered using a monochromatorwhich is placed between the two undulators. This spectrally narrow seed in addition to the electron
beam are then sent into the second undulator, which is used as an FEL amplifier. This type ofseeding has been demonstrated at hard X-ray wavelengths at the Linac Coherent Light Source(LCLS), with drastic improvement of the spectral purity of the resulting 8 keV X-ray beam [102].
While the potential of EUV/X-ray FEL light sources is enormous due to their capability
to produce extremely bright beams, to-date only four facilities are in operation at these shortwavelengths. Additionally, each of these facilities can currently handle only one user at a time. In
the future, switching stations will likely be installed in order to slightly increase the user accessibility

20of these light sources.

1.3.3

EUV/Soft X-ray lasers

The coherent light sources described in the two preceding sections operate at large facilities.
Users must submit proposals to obtain beam-time at these facilities; beam-time typically ranges
from several days to 2 weeks at a time during which the users can attempt their experiment. Twoother types of coherent EUV/X-ray sources exist on a smaller-scale: EUV/soft X-ray lasers andHHG sources. These sources are compact and inexpensive enough to operate in a typical laboratory.
EUV/soft X-ray lasers, similar to FELs, operate in a single-pass geometry. However, incontrast to FELs, the gain medium consists of multiply ionized atoms rather than relativistic
electrons, and photons are emitted at energies corresponding to atomic transitions similarly tolasers operating in the visible range. The first EUV laser was demonstrated in the early 1980’s atwavelengths near 20 nm, using Ne-like selenium (Se XXV) as a gain medium using a high-power,
facility-scale picosecond laser as the pumping mechanism [109]. The reason for the long gap in time
between the first visible laser in 1960 and the first EUV laser is due to the unfavorable scaling of
required pump power density, P , with wavelength, which scales as P ∝ λ−5 [26]. It wasn’t until
1994 that the first tabletop-scale EUV lasers were demonstrated because of this unfavorable scaling.
Thus far, two pumping mechanisms have been demonstrated that can produce this type ofpump power density on a tabletop scale. First, as high-power ultrafast lasers have become morecompact, they now have the power density necessary to pump ions to the upper level of EUV/soft
X-ray laser transitions to wavelengths less than 8 nm [110]. Second, EUV lasers have also been
demonstrated using fast capillary discharges as the pumping mechanism, most successfully for
Ne-like argon as the gain medium with laser output at 46.9 nm [25, 111].
EUV/soft X-ray lasers are capable of producing from 10 µJ up to 1 mJ, at several Hz to 100
Hz repetition rates, with very narrow spectral bandwidth [26]. This is comparable to the average
power of a typical X-ray FEL, albeit limited to mostly EUV wavelengths. The other caveat is thatthe pulse durations produced by this type of laser are in the picosecond range, comparable to that

21
produced by an undulator. Also, while these lasers exhibit very narrow spectral bandwidths, thetemporal and spatial coherence is limited since, similar to FELs, the laser output is produced by a
SASE process. However, as with FELs, they can instead be used to amplify a seed pulse in order toimprove coherence properties. Initial demonstrations have been performed that HHG can be used
to seed these lasers to be used in an amplifier mode. Similar to FELs, however, the synchronization
between the seed pulse and the gain medium excitation is technically challenging [112–114].

1.3.4

High harmonic generation

The final currently available coherent EUV/X-ray light source is HHG. Dramatic advancesin the past 15 years have greatly increased the usability of HHG as a light source for a wide
variety of scientific studies. HHG was first observed in the 1980’s [30, 115], but it wasn’t until the
1990’s that the process could be considered to be fully understood with a quantum theory of theprocess [116]. HHG is an extreme nonlinear process, and, while it shares some similarities with
low-order harmonic generation, a description of HHG requires fundamentally different physics thanthat which is involved in ordinary nonlinear optics.
The HHG process involves the production of coherent radiation at integer harmonics of an
ultrafast driving laser. The process can be understood classically in a 3-step model. In step one,a noble gas atom located in a strong, oscillatory electric field (produced by the driving laser) is
field-ionized. In step two, the ejected electron is then accelerated in the electric field, first awayfrom the parent ion and, after the electric field reverses sign, back towards the ion. In step three,
the electron has a finite probability of recombination with the parent ion, after which the extra
energy it gained in the laser field can be emitted as a high-energy photon [117].
The above simple description describes the high harmonic process for a single atom at a time.
However, to gain a full understanding of HHG as a light source, radiation from all of the noble gas
atoms involved must be taken into consideration macroscopically, and ideas such as phase matching
between the fundamental laser and the harmonic beam taken into account [118, 119]. The result isa fully spatially and temporally coherent light source, with the EUV/X-ray beam essentially taking

22on the coherence properties of the driving laser [31, 92]. Additionally, pulse durations are in theattosecond to femtosecond range. Isolated attosecond pulses are possible when photons above acertain energy are only generated during a single half-cycle of the driving laser [120]. In general,
EUV/X-ray photons are produced in attosecond bursts, once every half-cycle of the fundamental
laser.
Currently, bright HHG beams can be produced in the EUV and soft X-ray region of thespectrum, with wavelengths ranging from ≈ 1 − 30 nm. While these compact sources are nowhere
near as bright as FELs (typically 108 photons per shot can be produced in a single harmonicat repetition rates of several kHz [92]), the temporal resolution of these sources is unmatched.
Furthermore, while traditionally HHG beams exhibit linear polarization, recent work has shownthat it is also possible to generate circularly polarized HHG light, which should prove to be very
useful for ultrafast magnetism studies [121]. Due to the above desirable characteristics, HHG waschosen as the light source for the work in this thesis.

1.4

Overview of this thesis
This thesis will present the further development of a CDI-based coherent EUV microscope,using HHG as the light source. This microscope will be applied to dynamic imaging studies at the
nm- and fs-scales, taking advantage of the short wavelength and ultrafast properties of HHG, inorder to address important scientific questions at the nanoscale. These questions include how function is related to nanoscale inhomogeneities in catalytic, biological and energy-conversion systems,
how heat dissipates in next-generation data storage devices, and how to design and characterize
next generation integrated circuits in support of the relentless drive to shrink device dimensions.
In Ch. 2, HHG based on compact, ultrafast chirped pulse amplification (CPA) technology
will be described in detail. This description will include improvements to the specific laser/HHG
source used for this work. Ch. 3 will provide an overview of coherent scattering in the EUV/X-ray
region. Additionally, this chapter will describe available CDI techniques which can be applied foruse with this microscope. Ch. 4 will describe imaging results obtained with this microscope in23transmission mode, as well as improvements to the HHG source and microscope which enabledthese results. These results include the demonstration of a record tabletop full-field resolution of
22 nm. Recent imaging results in reflection geometry will be presented in Ch. 5. These results
represent the most general reflection CDI imaging to date. Finally, Ch. 6 will present ideas for thefurther development of the microscope, with the goal of dynamic imaging studies in mind.

Chapter 2

High Harmonic Generation Driven by Ultrafast Lasers

This chapter will focus on a discussion of the HHG light source used for the CDI-based
microscope described in this thesis. HHG sources rely on ultrafast lasers that are capable ofproducing the strong electric fields necessary to drive this extreme nonlinear optics process. The
following will first include brief reviews of ultrafast laser technology and the HHG process. Next,
improvements to the laser system relevant for its use as an HHG driver, including implementationof a pulse shaper and active laser beam pointing feedback, will be described and the impacts ofthese improvements will be discussed. The chapter will end with an outlook for the future of HHG
sources.

2.1

Introduction to ultrafast light sources
Short pulse lasers have been around almost since the invention of the laser [122, 123], sincea simple modification to the cavity of a ruby laser allowed it to be Q-switched only two years
later [124]. Q-switching simply refers to a fast way of modifying the finesse, or Q, of the laser
cavity. This is essentially a way to quickly turn on and off the optical feedback in a laser, allowing
the upper laser state to grow in population in the absence of stimulated emission while the feedback
is off before releasing this energy in a short pulse after the feedback is turned back on. These earlyQ-switched lasers had pulse durations of ≈100 ns, but mode-locked lasers capable of producing
picosecond pulses followed soon after [125].
Mode-locking simply refers to the situation in which the many longitudinal modes in a laser

25
cavity have a stable, or “locked”, phase relationship with each other. Simple Fourier analysis
predicts that this situation will result in a periodic sequence of pulse structures, with the widthof the features in the sequence inversely proportional to the frequency bandwidth covered by theresonating modes. Thus, a laser medium with a large gain bandwidth has potential to produce
extremely short pulses. However, in the simplest laser cavity (consisting of a gain medium inside
an optical cavity), the various modes are typically independent of each other, with varying phaserelationships due to various vibrations and other fluctuations in the laser system.
Coupling between modes can be achieved both actively and passively. Active mode-coupling
was demonstrated as early as 1964, and was achieved by modulating the cavity loss at the same
frequency as the laser mode spacing [126]. The modulation induces sidebands on each cavity mode,
and when these sidebands are coincident with adjacent modes a fixed phase relationship between
all modes is formed. Passive mode-locking can be achieved by introducing a nonlinearity into thelaser cavity. For instance, passive mode-locking was first demonstrated through the use of saturable
absorbers, which introduce intensity-dependent loss into the cavity [127, 128]. These materials canbe extremely lossy for low intensity light and near-transparent at high enough intensities. The
mode-locking process in this passive system can most easily be understood in the time domain. If
more than one mode is oscillating in the cavity, the interference between these modes will resultin amplitude structure in the time-varying electric field of the laser beam. Low-intensity fields will
see more loss in the saturable absorber than higher-intensity fields. This means that any peak-like
amplitude structure will become narrower at every pass through the laser cavity. Additionally, lowintensity structure between larger peaks will end up being completely absorbed. In the frequency
domain, this peak-narrowing process results in the participation of more and more cavity modes.
Again, from Fourier analysis, the end result can be predicted to be pulses which repeat at themode spacing frequency and have width limited by the bandwidth covered by the participating
laser modes. This type of system is exactly analogous to an electronic circuit called a regenerative
pulse generator, which was developed before the laser was invented.
While early Q-switching and mode-locking methods resulted in unprecedented peak optical

26

Figure 2.1: Schematic of a typical Ti:sapphire oscillator. M1 and M2 are curved mirrors (10 cm
radius of curvature), M3 is a fold mirror, M4 is an end mirror, M5 is an output coupler, P1 and P2
are fused silica prisms, and Ti:S is a Ti:sapphire crystal. The wider beam width between P1 andP2 represents the angularly dispersed spectrum. The spectrum is collimated between P2 and M4.

power and sub-picosecond pulses directly out of an oscillator [129], it wasn’t until the discovery of
Kerr lens mode-locking (KLM) in Ti:sapphire that the ultrafast revolution really began [130, 131].
Soon after, reduction of the round-trip dispersion in the cavity resulted in sub-10 fs pulses directly
out of an oscillator [132]. KLM is a passive mode-locking technique in which the nonlinearity which
couples the various cavity modes is a property of the Ti:sapphire gain medium itself. A typicaldispersion-compensated Ti:sapphire oscillator is depicted in Fig. 2.1, where negative dispersion due
to a pair of fused silica prisms is used to compensate for the positive dispersion in the Ti:sapphire
crystal [133].
As with saturable absorber modelocking, KLM can be most easily understood in the time
domain. The nonlinearity comes in the form of the nonlinear index of refraction, n, of Ti:sapphire,
which can be written asn(I) = n0 + n2 I + · · · ,(2.1)

where n0 is the normal index of refraction, n2 is the second-order index of refraction, and I is
the instantaneous intensity of the beam in the crystal. The key to understanding the modelocking mechanism is that the nonlinear index of refraction produces a lensing effect, assuming thelaser beam has a Gaussian mode distribution. To give a general idea of why this occurs, we can

27
approximate the intensity of a Gaussian beam near the optical axis as2I(r) = I0 e

− 2r2
w

≈ I0

2r2
1− 2
w


,

(2.2)

where I0 is the peak intensity of the beam, r is the distance from the optical axis and w is the waist
size of the beam. Using Eq. (2.1), we see that after propagating a distance d through a (thin) laser
crystal, the accumulated phase a distance r from the optical axis relative to the on-axis phase is∆φ(r) = −2k0 n2 dI0

r2
,
w2

(2.3)

where k0 is the free-space wavenumber of the laser. From comparison with the effect of a thin lens,
we can approximate the Kerr focal length as
fK =

w2
.
4n2 dI0(2.4)

While the above Kerr focal length is only an approximation, Eq. (2.4) serves the illustrative purposeto show that self-focusing proportional to the instantaneous intensity occurs in the crystal. Thiseffect can introduce an intensity-dependent loss into the cavity via the fact that the Kerr lenschanges the stability parameter of the cavity. The intensity-dependent loss can be effected either byplacing an aperture in the cavity or by alignment of the cavity such that low-intensity (cw) operation
produces a larger beam size in the crystal than does high-intensity (pulsed) operation [134,135]. The
latter method takes advantage of a tightly focused pump laser providing the excitation of the gain
medium, producing gain only within the width of the pump laser beam (termed soft aperturing)[134]. With an intensity-dependent loss mechanism established, the mode-locking mechanism canbe understood exactly as described above for the saturable absorber case.
KLM has clear advantages over mode-locking achieved with the use of a saturable absorber.
In the soft aperturing case, no extra losses must be added to the cavity. In addition, the quasiinstantaneous response of the KLM mechanism means that there is no need for long round-trip
cavity times to allow for the recovery of a dye or other absorber. Because of the necessary recovery
time, there is also less low-intensity loss immediately following the peak of the pulse, which can

28
limit the achievable pulse duration [136]. Advantages over active mode-locking schemes include thereduced complexity of the laser system and, again, shorter achievable pulse durations [136].

2.2

Compact chirped pulse amplification laser technology
A wide variety of scientific applications have been enabled based on mode-locked oscillator

output alone. For instance, frequency-comb metrology and optical clocks are two very important
applications that make direct use of the well-defined relationships between all of the modes in amode-locked oscillator [137]. Additionally, many experiments take advantage of the short pulse
durations and strong electric fields directly out of a Ti:sapphire oscillator for time-domain studies
and coherent control [138,139]. However, HHG in a noble gas requires electric fields with strengths
much larger than what can be obtained directly from a mode-locked oscillator. In order to produce
intensities required for HHG (> 1013 W/cm2 ) using a tabletop system, the output of the oscillator
can either be coupled into a femtosecond enhancement cavity [140, 141] or amplified at a reduced,
usually kHz-level, repetition rate using chirped pulse amplification (CPA) [142], which was themethod used for the work in this thesis.
CPA is a method of increasing the pulse energy output of an oscillator by many orders ofmagnitude, while keeping the peak intensity relatively low during the amplification process. Thisis important in order to avoid damaging the optical components in the amplifier system, and also
avoids nonlinear distortion as the beam passes through material in the amplifier [142]. A schematicof a typical CPA system is depicted in Fig. 2.2. Here, a tabletop, single-stage amplification system
based on Ti:sapphire as a gain medium is described. However, the general principle is the same forother gain media as well as for multi-stage amplifiers.
The output from a mode-locked oscillator (similar to that depicted in Fig. 2.1) is sent into
a positive-dispersion grating stretcher. The stretcher is shown in Fig. 2.2, and consists of two
anti-parallel (with respect to the optical axis) gratings with a telescope placed between them [143].
After the stretcher, the pulse is stretched, or “chirped”, to ≈100 ps. The amplifier component
shown in Fig. 2.2 includes a pulse picker, or Pockels cell in order to reduce the repetition rate from

29

Figure 2.2: Schematic of a chirped pulse amplification system. Figure adapted from [142].

≈80 MHz to, in this case, 3-5 kHz. These pulses are then amplified in a Ti:sapphire crystal in a
multi-pass scheme, with enough passes to ensure gain saturation. The laser crystal can be pumped
with up to 100 W of average power when cryo-cooled with a closed-loop helium system (CryomechPT90), allowing for multi-millijoule pulse energies at several kHz repetition rate [144]. In thiswork, the amplifier crystal is pumped by a frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser operating at 1-10 kHz
repetition rate and a maximum average power of 100 W at 532 nm (Lee Laser LDP-200MQG-HP).
After amplification, the pulse is sent into a negative dispersion grating compressor, as depicted inFig. 2.2. With use of blazed reflective gratings, the efficiency of the compressor is typically ≈65%
due to four grating bounces. Due to the effect of gain narrowing in the amplifier, the compressed
pulse duration is typically limited to 20-25 fs full width at half maximum (FWHM) [142].
To get an idea of the peak powers, and when focused, peak intensities, that can be achieved
with this amplifier system it is useful to consider the properties of a transform-limited Gaussian
pulse. We will consider pulses which are not transform-limited in a later section. For convenience
we will also assume a Gaussian spatial distribution. The following properties will be derived insomewhat of a reverse manner. We will consider experimentally measurable parameters and fromthese, eventually derive the strength of the electric field that can be obtained using a CPA system
as described above. We will restrict ourselves to considering a single plane normal to the optical

30
axis. First, we can define the quasi-instantaneous power of an isolated pulse as
2

P (t) = Pmax e−4 ln 2(t/τ ) ,(2.5)

where Pmax is the instantaneous power at the peak of the pulse and τ is the FWHM pulse duration.
In the above definition, the pulse is centered at t = 0. The reason this is “quasi-instantaneous”
and not simply “instantaneous” is that Eq. (2.5) is representative of the envelope of the pulse anddoesn’t account for the fast variations in power due to the presence of optical cycles. This will
be taken into account later when writing an expression for the electric field of the pulse. It isconvenient to write the peak power in terms of the pulse energy, Ep , and the pulse duration. This
expression can be obtained by integrating over the pulse. This allows us to rewrite Eq. (2.5) as
2Ep
P (t) =
τrln 2 −4 ln 2(t/τ )2
e
.
π

(2.6)

From Eq. (2.6) we can immediately calculate the peak power for a given pulse energy and duration.
For instance, a laser that produces 2 mJ, 25 fs pulses gives access to a peak power of 75 GW. To
provide a sense of scale, the state of Colorado currently uses 50 GW of power on average. However,operating at 5 kHz the average power output of this laser is only 10 W.
If we now assume a Gaussian spatial profile as well, we can write the intensity distributionas2

I(r, t) = I0 (t)e−2(r/w)(2.7)

where I0 (t) is the on-axis intensity at time t, r is the radial coordinate, and w is the 1/e2 radius of
the beam. The on-axis intensity can be related to the instantaneous power by integrating over the
beam spatially, with the result that
I(r, t) =2P (t) −2(r/w)2
e
.
πw2

(2.8)

Use of Eq. (2.6) allows us to write the intensity as a function of space and time as
4Ep
I(r, t) =πw2 τrln 2 −2(r/w)2 −4 ln 2(t/τ )2
e
e
.
π

(2.9)

31
If the above-mentioned laser pulse is focused to 100 µm diameter, Eq. (2.9) gives a peak intensityof 1.9 × 1015 W/cm2 .
We can use Eq. (2.9) to write an expression for the electric field of the pulse as a function oftime and space, with knowledge of the center frequency of the laser. The amplitude of the electricfield is given bys|E(r, t)| =2I(r, t)c0(2.10)

which gives
E(r, t) =2 4Ep
c0 πw2 τ1/2 

ln 2
π

1/4

2

2

e−(r/w) e−2 ln 2(t/τ ) cos (ω0 t + φce ) ,(2.11)

where ω0 is the central laser frequency and φce is the carrier-envelope phase. Unless stabilized
experimentally, the carrier-envelope phase varies from one pulse to the next [137]. From Eq. (2.11),
it can be seen that the maximum electric field only occurs at the center of the pulse envelope if
φce = nπ. This fact can be very important for few-cycle pulses, in the case where τ approaches
2π/ω0 . For instance, the maximum field strength can vary by 2.5% for a 5 fs pulse. However, themaximum field strength only varies by 0.1% for a 25 fs pulse. For the model pulse that we havebeen discussing (2 mJ, 25 fs, focused to 100 µm diameter), the maximum electric field amplitudeis 1.2 × 1011 V/m. For comparison, the Coulomb field at the position of the bound electron inhydrogen is 5.1 × 1011 V/m.

2.3

High harmonic generation
High harmonic generation requires laser intensities high enough that the ponderomotive en-ergy of the electric field is close to the ionization potential of the atoms used as the harmonic
media, in order to promote tunnel ionization [116]. For noble gases, this means that peak intensities ≥ 1014 W/cm2 are necessary. We have seen in the previous section that the laser system
discussed above is capable of producing peak intensities on this scale. In order to generate bright,
coherent HHG beams, it is possible to match the phase velocity of the fundamental laser to that of
the harmonic light to produce coherent buildup of HHG light along the optical axis. The “phase-32matching region” can be extended to long distances (several cm’s) through the use of hollow-corewaveguides.

2.3.1

Three step model

Much theoretical work on the mechanism of HHG has been developed over the past 25 years.
The process can be well understood semi-classically using the so-called 3-step model [117]. The 3step model has also been extended to include fully quantum calculations [116]. Here we will restrict
ourselves to a brief discussion of the semi-classical model for a noble gas. The three steps include
tunneling ionization, acceleration of the electron, and electron recombination. For simplicity, we
will at first only consider a single atom in the electric field of the laser pulse.
The first step in the model is tunnel ionization of the electron. With large electric fieldstrengths due to the incident laser pulse, the Coulomb potential of the atom is significantly distorted,
but not enough so that the electron is unbound (see Fig. 2.3 for an example in argon). This is theso-called tunneling ionization regime, which is the regime we will typically consider for HHG [117].
In this regime, the rate at which tunneling (or ionization) occurs was first calculated by Ammosov,
Delone, and Krainov [145]. Hence, it is called the ADK rate, which we will come back to later.
The next step is the acceleration of the electron in the electric field of the laser. Here,the semi-classical picture simply describes the trajectory of the electron in the oscillating electricfield of the laser, whereas the fully quantum picture calculates the wavefunction of the electron
as a function of time. The diffusion of the wavepacket is proportional to the amount of time theelectron spends in the electric field. The electron is first accelerated away from the parent ion(starting from rest), and when the field switches sign it is accelerated back towards the ion. Boththe semi-classical picture and the quantum picture agree on the amount of kinetic energy that theelectron can gain in the electric field of the laser before re-encountering the ion, and it is simply afunction of the phase of the electric field at the time of the electron’s release. The maximum energythat can be gained is 3.17Up , where Up is the ponderomotive potential of the laser field, which is

33

Figure 2.3: Tunnel ionization in argon. The laser has an intensity of 1.5 × 1014 W/cm2 , resulting
in a small barrier which is possible for the electron to tunnel through. The Coulomb potential forthe outer shell of argon is based on [146].

34
defined as
Up =

e2 E2
.
4me ω 2(2.12)

This happens when the phase of the electric field is ≈ 0.3 radians at the time of ionization. Electrons
having kinetic energy anywhere between 0 and 3.17Up can re-encounter the ion. However, electrons
which are ionized at laser phases of π/2 < φ < π and 3π/2 < φ < 2π never re-encounter the ion.
Finally, when the laser re-encounters the ion, there is a chance of recombination with theemission of a photon. The probability for this recombination can be calculated through computationof the expectation value of the dipole transition between the free electron and the ground state of abound electron. The emitted photon contains the energy that the electron gained due to accelerationin the laser field added to the ionization energy, Ip , of the atom. This leads to the familiar HHG
cutoff rule, which states that the maximum photon energy, hνmax , that can be generated for a given
type of atom and laser parameters is given byhνmax ≈ Ip + 3.17Up .

(2.13)

Single ionization energies for the noble gases are listed in Table 2.1. If we assume the harmonics
are being generated in a waveguide of inner radius a, the cutoff rule can be rewritten in terms ofcommonly quoted experimental parameters ashνmax ≈ Ip + 32.84

Ep λ2
,
τ a2

(2.14)

where the cutoff energy, hνmax , and ionization potential, Ip , are in eV, the pulse energy, Ep , is in
mJ, the wavelength, λ, is in nm, the pulse duration, τ , is in fs, and the waveguide radius, a, is inµm. For example, the laser system discussed in Section 2.2, when coupled into a 150 µm diameterwaveguide filled with helium, would have a HHG photon energy cutoff of ≈ 230 eV (assuming 70%
coupling efficiency).

2.3.2

HHG phase matching

As mentioned above, phase matching the HHG process is extremely important in order togenerate bright, coherent EUV and X-ray beams. If the process were to occur in vacuum, the35
Element
He
Ne
Ar
Kr
Xe

Ip (eV)
24.59
21.56
15.76
14.00
12.13

Table 2.1: Ionization energies of the noble gases, given in units of eV.

phase velocity of light of any wavelength would be c = 3 × 108 m/s. However, in the presence ofthe gas media and electron plasma there is a significant amount of dispersion. With use of hollowcore waveguides, the beam can be confined to a small area (and hence stay at near-constant highpeak intensity) over a much longer distance than in a typical focusing geometry; the waveguideconfinement adds an additional term to the dispersion.
Phase-matching is a technique which is borrowed from traditional nonlinear optics and here
applied to extreme nonlinear optics [147]. While the HHG process is fundamentally different than,for instance, sum and difference frequency generation which occurs in traditional nonlinear optics,
the idea behind phase matching is the same. The goal is to have the harmonic light build up
coherently across the entire interaction distance, which will only occur if light generated at one
distance along the optical axis is in phase with light generated at any other position along the opticalaxis. The key to phase matching is to match the phase velocities of two (or more) wavelengths oflight. The phase velocity can be defined simply as ω/k, where ω is the angular frequency and k is
the magnitude of the wavevector along the direction of propagation. This means that in order tophase-match HHG we simply require the following equality:
ωf
qωf
ωq
=
=
,
kf
kq
kq

(2.15)

where f refers to the fundamental laser and q refers to the harmonic number. We have used thesimple relation that in the case of harmonic generation, ωq = qωf . Thus it is clear that for truephase-matching to occur, we require that∆k = qkf − kq = 0.

(2.16)

36∆k is referred to as the phase mismatch. It is convenient to define a “coherence length” as Lc =π/∆k. The following simple model can further illustrate the importance of phase-matching. In
the presence of absorption, the on-axis intensity of the HHG beam in the far field is shown to be
proportional to [119, 148]:
Iq ∝ L2a

1 + exp (−Li /La ) − 2 exp (−Li /2La ) cos (πLi /Lc ),(2πLa /Lc )2 + 1(2.17)

where La is the (1/e intensity) absorption length, Li is the length of the interaction medium, and
Lc is the coherence length. The on-axis intensity as a function of Li is plotted in Fig. 2.4, showing
how the coherence length and absorption length tend to limit the intensity. Note that in order toachieve maximum intensity, the medium length must be several absorption lengths long, and thecoherence length must be much longer than the absorption length.
Eq. (2.17) has three interesting limiting cases. In the case where the coherence length is long,
Lc → ∞, the expression for the intensity becomeslim Iq ∝ L2a [1 + exp (−Li /La ) − 2 exp (−Li /2La )] ,Lc →∞(2.18)

so that with long enough interaction lengths (Li & 10La ) the intensity saturates at a level proportional to the square of the absorption length. The next interesting limiting case is the case where
there is no absorption, that is La → ∞. Now Eq. (2.17) reduces to



Lc
πLi 2
lim Iq ∝
sin
.
La →∞
π
2Lc

(2.19)

Thus it can be seen that in the case of no absorption the output intensity has an oscillatory
dependence on the interaction length, with a maximum yield proportional to the square of thecoherence length. The final limiting case is the ideal situation in which there is no absorption andperfect phase-matching can be achieved. In this case, the intensity at the output of the waveguideis simplylim

La ,Lc →∞Iq (Li ) ∝ L2i .

(2.20)

This final simplified case is appropriate to use when the interaction length is kept shorter than boththe coherence and absorption lengths. Since the absorption is typically not under experimental

37

Figure 2.4: On-axis intensity in the case of absorption-limited phase matching, based on Eq. (2.17).
Phase-matched growth in the absence of absorption is shown for reference. Note that oscillations
as a function of medium length due to finite coherence length disappear for the most part when
Lc > La . However, as shown above, the maximum absorption-limited intensity is only obtained
when Lc  La . Figure adapted from [148].

38
control, it is advantageous to find ways to extend the coherence length to be as long as possible inorder to achieve the greatest harmonic yield. Additionally, because the absorption length places alimit on the maximum phase-matched intensity that can be achieved, total power in a harmoniccan be increased by use of larger cross-sectional areas. However, in order to generate harmonics
efficiently, the peak power of the fundamental laser needs to scale linearly with the cross-sectionalarea.
With the importance of achieving long coherence lengths, or in other words very good phasematching, demonstrated above, it is important to understand how phase matching can be achieved.
For the most part, this means understanding the various contributions to the index of refraction
at the fundamental wavelength and at the qth harmonic. However, when the fundamental beam isconfined to a waveguide, there is an additional contribution to the phase velocity as a function of
waveguide mode [149]. Here we will assume that the harmonics are generated from a beam that iscoupled to the fundamental mode (EH11 ), of the waveguide. The phase mismatch, ∆k, for the qthharmonic can be written as [119, 150]∆k ≈ qu211 λ0
2π− qP (1 − η) (∆δ + n2 ) + qP ηNa re λ0 ,4πa2
λ0(2.21)

where u11 is the first zero of the Bessel J0 function, λ0 is the fundamental laser wavelength, a is
the waveguide radius, P is the pressure in atmospheres, ∆δ is the difference in index of refractionof the neutral gas at the fundamental and harmonic wavelengths, η is the ionization fraction, Na
is the number density of the gas at one atmosphere, and re is the classical electron radius. The
mismatch is mostly a function of the index of refraction for the fundamental laser; the harmonics
propagate at a phase velocity very close to the speed of light in vacuum [118].
From Eq. (2.21) it is clear that the gas pressure provides an convenient experimental tuning
parameter in order to achieve phase-matching. Specifically, with no ionization it is clear that there isa specific pressure, depending on the gas species, that will compensate for the waveguide dispersion.
As the ionization level increases (due to larger pulse energies and intensities), the pressure necessary
to phase-match increases as well. The phase matching pressure can be calculated by solving for39∆k = 0, and is given approximately by
P ≈u211 λ20.
4πa2 2π∆δ − ηNa re λ20(2.22)

From Eq. (2.22) it can be seen that there is a critical ionization fraction beyond which no amount ofpressure increase can achieve phase matching. This effect is reduced somewhat due to the fact thatmost of the ionization is highest on the optical axis, and the way that the fiber mode propagates
results in a modal averaging of the ionization across the spatial distribution of the EH11 mode.
This means that ionization fractions ≈ 5× higher than the critical ionization level can exist on
the optical axis. It is interesting to note the phase-matching pressure dependence on waveguide
radius; the harmonics can be phase-matched at a lower pressure for a given ionization fraction,
meaning the absorption length, La , is extended. As mentioned before, the required pulse energy
to generate a given harmonic increases with the cross-sectional area of the waveguide. However,the quadratic scaling of the output with absorption length suggests that this approach can lead toincreased harmonic yield [151–153].

2.3.3

Experimental parameters for HHG phase matching

From the understanding of the HHG process gained above, it is useful to get an idea of therequired experimental parameters for phase-matched harmonic generation. In the following, we will
briefly describe the required conditions for phase matching 29 nm and 13 nm HHG light. Here wewill make the assumption that we wish to reach the effective critical ionization level at the temporaland spatial peak of the pulse, so that the single atom yield is maximized but the process can still
be macroscopically phase-matched. We will also assume the use of a hollow-core waveguide with an
inner diameter of 150 µm, and we will assume 70% coupling efficiency into the lowest order mode.
We saw in Eq. 2.22 that there is a critical ionization level above which phase matching is
no longer possible. In addition, we noted that the relevant parameter is the modally averaged
ionization level across the EH11 mode of the waveguide. In order to calculate this from Eq. 2.22,
we need to know the value of ∆δ at these two wavelengths. This depends mostly on the neutral gas

40
dispersion of the gas media at 800 nm, with the contribution from the dispersion at the harmonic
wavelength approximately an order of magnitude smaller. For argon at 29 nm, ∆δAr = 3.7 × 10−4 ,and for helium at 13 nm, ∆δHe = 3.9 × 10−5 . These values lead to a critical ionization for phasematching of 29 nm in argon of ≈ 5%, and a critical ionization for phase matching of 13 nm inhelium of ≈ 0.5%.
In order to find out what peak intensities we can handle in these two situations before theionization level is too high for phase-matching, we can use the ADK rates mentioned earlier. If weassume a 25 fs transform-limited pulse at 800 nm, we find that the modally averaged ionizationlevel crosses the critical threshold at the peak of the pulse for peak intensities of ≈ 2.3×1014 W/cm2
in argon, and ≈ 8.5 × 1014 W/cm2 in helium. In a 150 µm diameter fiber, these peak intensities
require pulse energies of 420 µJ and 1.5 mJ, respectively, assuming 70% coupling efficiency into thelowest order mode. At higher pulse energies, phase matching can only be achieved on the leadingedge of the pulse. Waveguides with larger diameter can accommodate higher pulse energies, withpulse energy scaling linearly with cross-sectional area.
Based on the peak intensities calculated above in combination with ADK rate calculations,
it is interesting to estimate the width of the harmonic beam radius inside the waveguide. Thisestimate can be made if we assume that the number of emitting atoms is simply proportional tothe ionization rate (as a function of time and of the distance from the optical axis), and that theelectric field of a given harmonic is proportional to the number of emitters. This type of analysis
predicts a Gaussian beam radius of ≈ 20 µm when using a 150 µm diameter fiber with peakintensities as calculated above [118], at both 29 nm and 13 nm wavelength. This is consistent withthe usual assumption that HHG follows an approximately fifth-order nonlinear field dependence
nearly independent of harmonic number [154].

2.4

Complete control of the HHG driving laser
As we have seen in the previous section, extreme nonlinear optics can be used to convert theoutput of an ultrafast amplifier system to coherent, short-wavelength beams in the HHG process.

41
However, typical CPA systems are not necessarily fully optimized for use with HHG. In order toachieve the shortest pulse durations, it can be necessary to add a component to the system called apulse shaper, which is discussed next in Section 2.4.1. Additionally, the stability of an HHG source
depends critically on the stability of the fundamental laser. Any pointing or intensity instabilityof the fundamental laser (typically drift or oscillation) is mapped directly onto the HHG source.
Even worse, because HHG is a nonlinear process these instabilities are magnified nonlinearly. First
steps towards improving pointing stability of compact CPA systems are discussed in Section 2.4.2.

2.4.1

Pulse shaping for temporal control

In order to achieve phase-matching at the highest possible photon energies, it is important tohave short, transform-limited pulse durations [155]. The amplifier systems described in Section 2.2,
even when aligned perfectly, typically have 4th-order (and higher) dispersion. In order to achievetransform-limited pulse durations, this extra spectral phase must be compensated for by the insertion of a device called a pulse shaper [156]. While it can be possible to shape pulses in the time
domain, for ultrashort pulses it is usually easier to shape them in the spectral domain.
The effect of spectral phase on the time-domain characteristics of the pulse can be understood
through the Fourier-transform relationship between the time and frequency domains. From anexperimental point of view, it is easier to measure the frequency-domain characteristics of an
ultrashort pulse. If the spectral components of the pulse do not all line up in phase, then thefrequency-domain representation of the pulse can be written as
s


2I(ω)
Ẽ(ω) =
exp i φ̃(ω) ,c0(2.23)

where I(ω) is proportional to the power spectral density of the pulse and φ̃(ω) is the spectralphase function. I(ω) can be easily measured with a spectrometer. The spectral phase is typicallysmoothly varying. For this reason, it can be convenient to expand φ(ω) in a Taylor series, so thatEq. (2.23) can be rewritten as
s
Ẽ =

∞

2I(ω) Y
exp
c0
n=2

φ̃(n) (ω0 )(ω − ω0 )nn!

!
,(2.24)

42
where φ̃(n) (ω0 ) is the nth derivative of φ̃ evaluated at the central frequency, ω0 . The first two
terms in the series have been omitted, since a constant phase has no effect, and a linear phasesimply serves to shift the pulse in time, with no effect on the temporal shape of the pulse. The
time-domain characteristics of this pulse can be calculated through an inverse Fourier transform,
so that
E(t) = F−1noẼ(ω) Φ̃(ω)(2.25)

where for simplicity the product in Eq. (2.24) is represented by Φ̃(ω). From the convolution
theorem, we can see that in the time domain, the electric field of the pulse is a convolution between
a transform-limited pulse which is a function of the spectral weights with a function that depends
on the spectral phase. This can be written as
E(t) = ET.L. (t) ∗ Φ(t)(2.26)

where ET.L. (t) represents a transform-limited pulse, and Φ(t) = F−1 {Φ̃(ω)}. Since a transformlimited pulse is the shortest possible pulse that can be generated with a given spectrum, any
spectral phase function with more than constant and linear terms will produce a spreading of thepulse in the time domain, from Eq. (2.26). Any time the pulse travels through any material thathas non-zero dispersion (even air for broad enough spectral bandwidths), this temporal spreading
will occur. With grating-based pulse stretchers and compressors it is possible to compensate for up
to third-order group delay, which is proportional to the 4th derivative of φ̃ evaluated at ω0 [142].
However, for higher-order dispersion compensation it is in general necessary to use other means.

2.4.1.1

Pulse shaper design

As mentioned above, for ultrashort pulses it is usually only possible to achieve transformlimited pulses using frequency-domain pulse shaping. The simplest way of accomplishing thisis to spatially disperse the pulse into its constituent colors, apply a spatially-dependent phaseretardation on the dispersed pulse, and then spatially recombine the colors back into one beam.
What the previous sentence describes is exactly what happens in a pulse stretcher [143], with the43

Figure 2.5: Schematic of a zero-dispersion stretcher used as a frequency-domain pulse shaper. As
shown, the two lenses, L, have the same focal length, and the two gratings, G, have identical groove
spacing. The phase mask M is placed at the Fourier plane of the telescope. The arrows indicate
direction of beam propagation. The red, green and blue colors represent the low, middle, and highfrequency ranges of the laser spectrum. Figure adapted from [159].

exception that a phase mask can be placed in the Fourier plane of the telescope in order to modify
the spectral phase of each color individually. The gratings can then be placed in the zero-dispersion
configuration so that the only spectral phase modification occurs due to the phase mask [157, 158].
A schematic of this type of apparatus is shown in Fig. 2.5.
The phase masks are often made with liquid crystal spatial light modulators (SLMs). The
optical path length through the liquid crystal can be modulated by application of an electric field
produced by a series of electrodes, which are typically oriented in an array, forming pixels [160].
If a mirror is placed behind the phase mask in Fig. 2.5, the optical system can be folded in orderto improve ease of alignment, make the system more compact, and reduce cost of components. In
this folded geometry deformable mirrors have also been used in place of phase masks [161]. A 3D
perspective view of such a folded system is shown in Fig. 2.6, with the telescope lens replaced witha spherical mirror at normal incidence.
The pulse shaper design shown in Fig. 2.6 was analyzed using optical design software (Zemax12). The focal length for mirror M2 was 10 cm, and the grating, G, had 1200 lines/mm. Whenaligned properly, the output displayed some spectrally-dependent astigmatism. However, as shownin Fig. 2.7, when the input beam was collimated to 2.5 mm diameter, the focus size was very close

44

Figure 2.6: Schematic of a folded geometry, SLM-based pulse shaper. The optical path is essentially
identical to that described in Fig. 2.5, except that it is made more compact. The beam first travels
to M1, and subsequently diffracts from a grating, G. The spectrum is then collimated with acurved mirror, M2, with focal length f , placed a distance f from the grating. Upon reflection
from M2 (which is tilted slightly downwards), the spectrum is collimated, while each individual
spectral component is focused towards M3. M3 is simply a fold mirror which redirects the spatiallydispersed beam towards the SLM. Each spectral component is focused at the plane of the SLM,
which is placed in such a way that the optical path length from M2 to the SLM is the focal length,
f . A mirror is integrated behind the liquid crystal array of the SLM, so that the beam backtracks
its way through the system, with the SLM tilted in such a way that the beam comes out of thesystem a full beam diameter below the input. The output is then separated from the input at theoutput mirror, M4.

45
to diffraction-limited, meaning the astigmatism is only a small effect.
The spectral phase introduced by this pulse shaper design was also calculated using theZemax model of the system. Minimizing the added spectral phase was the motivation behind using
a spherical mirror rather than a lens in this design. The calculated spectral phase as a function of
wavelength is shown in Fig. 2.8. Note that across a 150 nm bandwidth, the added spectral phase isless than 1 radian. While the SLM in principle could compensate for spectral phase added due tothe passive components of the pulse shaper, the fact that the added spectral phase is small allows
for a larger dynamic range of compensation for other sources of dispersion.

2.4.1.2

Experimental implementation

After the Zemax model exhibited good spatial and temporal characteristics for this pulse
shaper design, a device was built based on this design for insertion into the amplifier systemdescribed in Section 2.2. The SLM used as the phase mask was a 1D array of 12,288 liquid crystal
pixels (Boulder Nonlinear Systems Model P12,288), enabling the application of very smooth phasefunctions with a large possible dynamic range of phase compensation. Large dynamic range isenabled by wrapping the desired phase modulo 2π [159]. The SLM has width 20 mm, so that withthe optical design mentioned above (grating with 1200 grooves/mm, 10 cm focal length curved
mirror), this pulse shaper can support a bandwidth > 150 nm. The pulse shaper device was placedin the amplifier system directly before the stretcher component (see Fig. 2.2). It is importantthat this device is placed before the amplification step for two reasons. First, the overall power
efficiency is ≈ 60%, due to finite reflectivities and diffraction efficiencies. Assuming the oscillator
power output is > 450 mW, this efficiency does not reduce the power output of the amplifier.
Second, the SLM has a damage threshold well below what would be required if the amplified pulse
were sent through the pulse shaper.
In principle, it is possible to measure the spectral phase of the amplifier output using a technique such as frequency resolved optical gating (FROG) [162] and apply the opposite phase on
the SLM. However, in practice this is can be a difficult task due to necessary calibration of the

46

Figure 2.7: The output of the pulse shaper shown in Fig. 2.6 was focused in simulation using
Zemax optical design software. A collimated Gaussian beam with 2.5 mm diameter was used
as an input to the simulation. The top panels show ray traces as a function of wavelength for
5 positions surrounding the focus. The ray traces show that the pulse shaper adds spectrallydependent astigmatism. The circle in the panel displaying the rays for zero defocus has diameterof a diffraction-limited Airy radius. The bottom panels are shown on the same scale as the top,
and display the spatial beam profiles when the contributions from each wavelength are summed
incoherently. Note that the beam profile in focus is near-diffraction-limited. The wavelengths
shown in the legend have have units of nm.

Figure 2.8: Spectral phase introduced by the pulse shaper design shown in Fig. 2.6. The spectralphase was calculated using a Zemax model of the pulse shaper.

47
spectrum on the SLM, etc. Fortunately, a variety of techniques have been developed which allow
one to retrieve the necessary phase to apply in order to achieve transform-limited pulses. These
techniques generally rely on some type of nonlinear response similar to that required by FROG
techniques, usually through detecting a second harmonic generation (SHG) signal. Assuming thepulse energy stays constant, a flatter spectral phase will always result in higher SHG conversion
efficiency [163, 164]. Techniques that have proven to be capable of producing transform-limited
pulses include global optimization, for instance genetic algorithms [161, 165], other iterative procedures [166], and direct phase retrieval [167].
Here we have used an iterative procedure known as the freezing phase algorithm (FPA)[166, 168] in order to produce mJ-level transform-limited pulses at 5 kHz repetition rate. The FPA
optimizes the phase of each spectral component individually, in relation to the spectral phase of all
the other spectral components. The algorithm steps from one spectral component to the next. Afterevery spectral component has been adjusted, the process is repeated a desired number of times.
This approach is theoretically guaranteed to always move closer to a transform-limited pulse [166],
thus asymptotically approaching the solution. However, there is no guarantee that a set numberof iterations will produce the desired accuracy. Nevertheless, simulations and experiments haveshown that typically only 3 iterations across the full spectrum are required in order to achieve an
accuracy on the level of the phase resolution. The advantage of FPA over a genetic algorithm isthat there are no parameters which must be optimized.
The experimental procedure for pulse optimization is as follows. A small portion of theamplifier output is reflected from a wedged window placed near Brewster’s angle. The beam is
focused (with a spherical mirror rather than lens in order to avoid dispersion) onto a photodiodewith wavelength range 150 − 550 nm (Thorlabs PDA25K). The wavelength range of the amplifier
output is restricted to 720 − 850 nm, so that only two-photon absorption produces a signal [169].
The two-photon photodiode is used in place of an SHG signal, to reduce measurement complexity.
The photodiode signal is measured using an oscilloscope (Tektronix TDS3032) and sent into a
computer that also interfaces with the SLM. A typical result of the pulse improvement achieved

48
after running the FPA is shown in Fig. 2.9. While the pulse is near-transform-limited to begin
with (see Fig. 2.9(a)-(c)), the optimized pulse shows significant improvement (Fig. 2.9(d)-(f)). The
FWHM time-bandwidth product of the optimized pulse is 0.52, very close to the Gaussian limit of
0.44.

2.4.1.3

Future directions

There is some evidence that HHG can be optimized in the presence of non-zero spectralphase [165, 170, 171]. However, this optimization has only been demonstrated with pulse durations< 20 fs. With the use of cryo-cooled Ti:sapphire amplifier crystals for high average power, this isa difficult criteria to meet. However, the results obtained by Pfeifer et al. made use of spectral
broadening due to self phase modulation (SPM) in argon to achieve 13 fs pulse duration [171].
In their case, the pulse shaper made use of a high-damage threshold deformable mirror, and wasinserted into the system after amplification and spectral broadening. Pursuit of HHG optimization
with the pulse shaper described here using ≈ 20 fs pulses is a potential future endeavor.

2.4.2

Beam pointing stabilization for stable HHG sources

While compact compared to large laser facilities, the CPA systems described in Section 2.2
are large and complex enough that the beam pointing and average power of the output can bevery sensitive to vibrations and thermal drift. However, many experimental techniques rely on
the laser source to have stable pointing and average power. In many cases the passive stability ofthese complex laser systems is not good enough, leading to artifacts in experimental data as well
as setting a time limit on certain experiments.
For continuous-wave (cw) laser systems, fast feedback circuits have been developed for beam
pointing stabilization using quadrant photodiodes (QPDs) or position sensitive detectors (PSDs)
for position detection and piezo-actuated mirrors for position adjustment [172]. With two detectors
and two mirrors (two separate feedback loops), both the position and angle of the laser beam canbe stabilized at all positions along the beam axis. The difficulty with ultrafast kHz lasers is that

49

Figure 2.9: Comparison between amplified pulse with and without the pulse shaper. (a) Measured
SHG-FROG intensity with the pulse shaper turned off. (b) Retrieved spectral intensity (blue) andphase (green). (c) Retrieved time-domain intensity (blue) and phase (green). (d)-(f) are the sameas (a)-(c) except with the pulse shaper turned on. Note that while both pulses in (c) and (f) have
duration ≈ 25 fs FWHM, the pulse in (f) has 10% higher peak intensity than (c) for a given pulse
energy.

50
the duty cycle of the pulsetrain is extremely small; if an analog system is to be used for position
feedback, a triggered sample and hold circuit must be inserted into the feedback loop. This type of
analog system has been previously demonstrated on a kHz laser system, but with only a single mirror
and single detector for stabilization of the focus position but not the focus angle [173–175]. Other
work has shown that analog feedback systems using a “quasi-cw” oscillator beam collinear withthe low-rep rate amplified beam can be measured and stabilized in order to stabilize the pointingof the amplified beam [176]. However, this type of system represents a non-trivial modification to
the amplifier system and requires careful alignment to ensure collinearity, in addition to requiring
the assumption that the beams stay collinear over time.
A third option for kHz beam pointing stabilization is to use a digital feedback loop, using
charge-coupled devices (CCDs) or QPDs for position detection, piezo-actuated mirrors for position
correction, and a desktop computer (PC) to close the feedback loop [177–179]. For this type of
feedback system, the feedback bandwidth is limited by the relatively low sampling rate of theCCDs, which is typically < 30 Hz. However, the use of CCDs offers several advantages. First, theexposure time can be set to integrate over several laser shots, meaning that there is never a lackof signal. Second, the beam is measured across many pixels, in principle allowing a more accurate
calculation of the centroid. Finally, the direct image of the beam can be used for additional beamdiagnostics.
Previous implementations of two-detector, two-mirror systems have separated the system
into two independent feedback loops. In this case, there are restrictions placed on the possible
geometry that can be used. Essentially, the first detector must image the beam position at thesecond mirror, while the second detector can image the beam position anywhere beyond the second
mirror. Here we propose a more general geometry using a digital feedback system, in which thetwo detectors may be placed at any positions beyond the second mirror position, as long as they
are independent. The advantage here is that the detectors can both be placed near the experiment,
where the beam stability is most critical. In the following, we will describe the geometry of the
feedback system in detail, describe how it is implemented, and compare experimental results to51
theoretical performance. Finally, we apply this system to stabilize the driving laser of a highharmonic generation (HHG) source [31], and demonstrate improved intensity and pointing stabilityof the HHG source as a result.

2.4.2.1

Feedback Geometry

The geometry used for the active pointing feedback is shown in Fig. 2.10. The feedback loop
consists of two piezo-actuated mirrors (Thorlabs KC1-PZ mirror mounts with MDT693B piezo
controllers) and two CCD detectors (Mightex CGE-B013-U). One piezo-actuated mirror is placednear the amplifier output, while the second is placed directly in front of a lens (here used forcoupling into a HHG waveguide). The two mirrors are approximately 2 meters apart. The large
distance between the mirrors allows their movements to be decoupled. Intuitively, the first mirror
controls the position of the beam on the lens, while the second mirror controls the angle of thebeam on the lens.
The transmitted beam through a 99/1 beamsplitter is used for position detection. One
detector is placed at the focus, and the other is placed as far past the focus as possible while
keeping the beam size small enough to fit completely on the detector. In our case, this corresponds
to a 25 cm separation distance between the two detectors. The detectors are externally triggered sothat each exposure measures the same number of laser pulses. The horizontal and vertical centroids
are monitored at both detector positions at a frame rate of 15-20 Hz, which is functionally equivalent
to a measurement of the position and angle of the beam at the focus. While the coupling efficiencies
into the waveguide modes are most highly sensitive to beam position at the waveguide entrance, thenon-negligible sensitivity to beam input angle necessitates the use of two mirrors and two detectors(see supplementary information for further discussion of waveguide mode sensitivity to position
and angle). The centroids are calculated after first subtracting 10% of the maximum value, andsetting all pixels less than zero to zero. This measure reduces the influence of detector read noiseand beam intensity fluctuations on the centroid calculation.

52

Figure 2.10: Geometry for active feedback. One piezo-actuated mirror (M1) is placed directly atthe output of the amplifier system, and the second piezo-actuated mirror (M2) is placed directly
before the lens (L) used to couple into a waveguide (HHG). The beam transmitted through a 99/1
beamsplitter (BS1) is used to detect the beam position: this beam is split with a 50/50 beamsplitter(BS2) in order to monitor the beam at both the focus (detector D1) and beyond the focus (detector
D2). The feedback loop is implemented on a PC using a custom-written program.

53
2.4.2.2

Implementation

The feedback loop is closed by a custom PC program which interfaces with the CCD detectors
as well as the mirror controllers. The system is treated as a linear system of equations. The four
~ and the changes in applied
centroid deviations from four target positions are treated as a vector δX,~ .
piezo voltage required to move the beam back to the target position are treated as a vector δV
The system of equations is defined by the matrix A, where~ = −A δX.
~
δV(2.27)

While knowledge of all relevant distances between mirrors, detectors and lens would allow direct
calculation of A, in practice A is calculated through a calibration routine. The four centroid~ are measured in response to independent movement of each mirror axis. Assuming Achanges δX
is invertible, this measurement populates the columns of A−1 one at a time, through the equation~ .
~ = −A−1 δVδX(2.28)

It is straightforward to show that the invertibility criterion is met as long as the two piezo mirrors
are positioned at different points along the beam axis and as long as the two detectors measuredifferent points along the beam axis.
~ , calculated using Eqn. (2.27), are treated as the error signal in a digital
The voltages δV
proportional integral (PI) controller implemented in the software program. The PI controller
is discretized using the bilinear transform [180], so that the voltage output obeys the following
difference equation:




k
k
i
i
~ [t] + −kp +~ [t − τ ],~out [t] = V~out [t − τ ] + kp +
V
δV
δV
2
2

(2.29)~ is the error signal calculated from~out is the applied voltage to the piezo mounts, δV
where V
Eqn. (2.27), kp is the proportional gain, ki is the integral gain, t is the current time, and τ isthe sampling period. The proportional and integral gains are chosen empirically to be as high as
possible without introducing instability or degrading short-term stability.

54
The Z-transform can be applied to Eqn. (2.29) to yield the open-loop transfer function of
the feedback system (assuming the piezo mirror response is unity at all relevant frequencies). The
result is
2kp 1 − z −1 + ki 1 + z −1
H(z) =,
2 (1 − z −1 )(2.30)

where H(z) is the open-loop gain and z is a complex number. The frequency response can beobtained by evaluating z on the unit circle. From the open-loop gain we can define the closed-loop
sensitivity as
S(z) =

1
1 + H(z)(2.31)and the closed-loop complementary sensitivity as
CS(z) =H(z).
1 + H(z)(2.32)The sensitivity is the closed-loop gain on any disturbance to the system (beam drift/oscillation)and the complementary sensitivity is the closed-loop gain on the setpoint (target centroid positions)as well as on any measurement noise (centroid measurements).

2.4.2.3

Results

The performance of the feedback system was tested on the 5 kHz, 2 mJ, 22 femtosecond
Ti:sapphire amplifier system described in Section 2.2. In order to fully characterize the system,
the beam centroids were monitored on two additional out-of-loop detectors simultaneously with
the in-loop detectors. In order to compare the actual performance to the theoretical performanceof the PI controller, centroids were monitored with the feedback system both locked and unlocked
for several hours in each case.
The short- and long-term stability improvements can be seen immediately by inspection of
the raw centroid angle measurements. The beam angles were calculated as
θi (z1 ) ≈Ci (z2 ) − Ci (z1 )z2 − z1(2.33)

55
X Centroid (µm)
Y Centroid (µm)
X Angle (µrad)
Y Angle (µrad)

Unlocked (in-loop)
1.12
1.90
10.16
7.81

Locked (in-loop)
0.40
0.42
6.08
3.76

Locked (out-of-loop)
0.44
0.53
6.82
4.61

Table 2.2: Standard deviations of focus position and angle, calculated on a one minute timescalefor unlocked in-loop, locked in-loop, and locked out-of-loop measurements.

where z1 is the focus position along the optical axis, z2 is the position of the second detector along
the optical axis, θi is the angle of the beam relative to the optical axis, Ci is the centroid of thebeam relative to the optical axis, and i 3 {x, y} represents the transverse coordinates. Examples ofshort- and long-term centroid and angle measurements are shown in Figs. 2.11 and 2.12, respectively.
Quantitatively, the improvements in standard deviation of the focus position and angle on a one
minute timescale are displayed in Table 2.2. Further insight into how the stability is improved at
a variety of timescales can be gained through calculation of the overlapping Allan deviation [181].
A comparison of the Allan deviations of the centroids and angles at the beam focus for locked andunlocked cases is displayed in Fig. 2.13, for timescales ranging from 70 ms to 5 minutes. Note thatabove 1 s averaging time, the stability is improved by better than an order of magnitude. The
fact that the open-loop measurements show slightly more drift at long timescales is due to thermal
drift of the mirror mounts that are not shared between the two measurements. For this reason, it
is important to minimize the number of mirrors/mounts that are not shared between the feedback
system and the experiment.
The amplitude spectral densities (ASDs) of the centroid measurements are also useful asa measure of feedback system performance. The ASDs of the centroids and angles at the focus
are shown in Fig. 2.14. While there is very clear improvement in the locked vs. unlocked caseat low frequencies (below 0.5 Hz), there is a slight degradation in the 1-3 Hz region. The likely
explanation for this degradation is that a small amount of measurement noise has been written onto
the output of the system. The complementary sensitivity function from Eq. (2.32) (through whichmeasurement noise can be written onto the output) is plotted along with the ASDs for the vertical

56

Figure 2.11: Centroids and angles of the beam focus over the course of one minute, locked andunlocked. Note that this is raw data; no smoothing was performed prior to plotting.

57

Figure 2.12: Centroids and angles of the beam focus over the course of two hours, locked andunlocked. Note that here the data was smoothed using a boxcar filter with 10 second width.

58

Figure 2.13: Overlapping Allan deviation of the centroids and angles at the beam focus, calculated
for locked in-loop, locked out-of-loop, and unlocked cases. The oscillation evident in the verticalangle (d) occurs with a ≈ 7 second period, which has been tracked to the chiller cycle of theamplifier pump laser.

59√
centroid in Fig. 2.14(b), multiplied by a white measurement noise of 0.4 µm/ Hz. This assumed
value of measurement noise is chosen by fitting the complementary sensitivity function to the levelof the ASD for the locked case. Additionally, these measurements elucidate the effect amplifiercooling cycles on the beam pointing. In Fig. 2.14(a), the ASD of the horizontal centroid shows
clear peaks at 2.4 Hz and 4.8 Hz, which are the lowest two harmonics of the cryocooler (Cryomech
PT-90) cooling cycle frequency. These peaks represent a 250 nm peak-to-peak oscillation, andthese frequencies are too high to compensate for with the current system. The ASD of the verticalangle (Figure 2.14(d)) shows peaks at 0.13 Hz and 0.26 Hz, which match the cooling cycle of theamplifier pump laser (Lee Laser LDP-200MQG-HP). At these frequencies, Fig. 2.14(d) shows thatthe stabilization system reduces these peaks by a factor of 5 and 2, respectively.
Additional information can be obtained by dividing the ASD of the locked case by that of
the unlocked case, shown again for the vertical centroid of the focus in Fig. 2.15. In a perfectsystem (no measurement noise), this would be a measure of the sensitivity (Eqn. (2.31)). The
theoretical sensitivity function for our feedback system is also plotted in Fig. 2.15. From the figure,it is clear that the system performs as designed below 1 Hz. Further improvements to the system
will require reduced measurement noise and a higher sampling rate. Reduction in measurement
noise will result in less or no degradation to the stability above 1 Hz. Higher sampling rate will
enable more aggressive feedback (reduced sensitivity) at low frequencies, as well as the possibility
to broaden the feedback bandwidth to higher frequencies for improved short-term stability.

2.4.2.4

Application to High Harmonic Generation

The utility and reliability of HHG sources is highly dependent on the stability of the laser
amplifiers used to drive the HHG process. Here we apply the pointing stabilization techniquedescribed above to demonstrate improved short- and long-term stability of a 13 nm wavelength
HHG source, driven by the amplifier system described in Section 2.2.
The high harmonics were produced in a helium gas-filled hollow-core waveguide. The waveguide was 5 cm long with an inner diameter of 150 µm. The laser described in Section 2.4.2.3

60

Figure 2.14: The amplitude spectral densities (ASDs) of the centroids and angles at the beam focus,
measured in-loop. The locked case is shown in blue while the unlocked case is shown in green. In(a), the horizontal centroid shows very clear oscillations at harmonics of the cryocooler system cycle(Cryomech PT-90). The vertical angle (d) shows strong oscillations at harmonics of the pump laser
chiller cycle (Lee Laser LDP-200MQG-HP). The complementarysensitivity multiplied by the noise√level is shown in red in (b), with a white noise fit of 0.4 µm/ Hz. Note that the amplitude spectral
density was smoothed using a boxcar filter with width 1.5 mHz.

61

50

Sensitivity (dB)0−50
Measured
Theoretical
−100

−150

−2

10

−1

0

10
10
Frequency (Hz)Figure 2.15: The magnitude of the measured and theoretical closed-loop sensitivity for the verticalcentroid, measured in-loop. The magnitude of the measured sensitivity is calculated simply bydividing the amplitude spectral density of the locked measurement by the amplitude spectral densityof the unlocked measurement. Note that the amplitude spectral densities were smoothed using aboxcar filter with width 1.5 mHz prior to division.

62
was coupled into the waveguide (as shown in Fig. 2.10) with a waist diameter of approximately
100 µm, in order to couple the majority of the laser energy into the lowest order mode (EH11 ) of
the waveguide [118]. The helium gas was inserted into the final 5 mm of the waveguide, at a phasematching pressure of approximately 1000 torr. The fundamental laser beam was removed from thecollinear high harmonic beam through the use of a pair of ZrO2 -coated silicon mirrors placed near
Brewster’s angle for 800 nm, followed by two 200 nm-thick Zr filters. The high harmonic beam
was then spectrally filtered by two Mo/Si multilayer mirrors with a reflectivity bandwidth of 4 eV
centered at 97 eV (13 nm) for selection of the 63rd harmonic. The 13 nm high harmonic beam wasthen imaged directly on a EUV-sensitive CCD (Andor iKon), 2 m away from the waveguide. An
image of the HHG beam is shown in Fig. 2.16a.
To demonstrate the improvement of high harmonic stability, the driving laser pointing wasstabilized into the waveguide as described above. Images of the beam were collected with 1 s
exposure time at a rate of ≈ 0.5 Hz for a total of just over 6 hours. For the first 4.5 hours, thepointing feedback was enabled, after which point the feedback was turned off and the HHG beam
was monitored for an additional 1.5 hours. Images of the beam at the beginning of measurement,
4 hours into the measurement (feedback still on), and 6 hours into the measurement (feedback off)are displayed in Figs. 2.16a, b and c, respectively. Note that the images of the beam at the 0 and 4
hour points are qualitatively similar, whereas at the 6 hour point the mode shape of the beam haschanged considerably. The reason for the change in mode shape is that as the driving laser beamdrifts, a significant amount of the energy is coupled into higher-order waveguide modes, resulting
in more complicated intensity distributions along the waveguide.
In order to display the entire dataset, each image was summed across the horizontal direction.
The result is displayed as a function of time in Fig. 2.17a. A dashed line is placed at the timecorresponding to when the feedback was turned off. From the figure, it is clear that the long-term
stability of the HHG beam is improved through the use of the pointing feedback system. To moreclearly display improvements to the short-term stability of the HHG source, Fig. 2.17b shows azoomed-in view of the data in Fig. 2.17a for the several minutes surrounding the unlock point.

63

Figure 2.16: Full images of the high harmonic beam at various times, taken from the same raw
data as in Fig. 2.17. (a) Beam at the beginning of data collection. (b) Beam after 4 hours with thepointing feedback turned on. (c) Beam 6 hours into data collection, 1.5 hours after the feedback
was disabled. Note that the scale bar to the left of (a) is shared among all three images.

64
Again, the dashed line represents the time at which the feedback was turned off.
Quantitatively, the standard deviation of the horizontal centroid of the HHG beam improved
from 29 µrad to 11 µrad and the standard deviation of the vertical centroid improved from 50 µrad
to 15 µrad (all calculated on a 5-minute timescale). While locked over 4.5 hours, the maximum
deviation of the horizontal centroid was 90 µrad and the maximum deviation of the vertical centroid
was 163 µrad. While unlocked over 1.5 hours, the maximum deviation of the horizontal centroid
was 915 µrad and the maximum deviation of the vertical centroid was 816 µrad. It is also important
to note that, as can be seen from Figs. 2.16 and 2.17, the integrated intensity varied by less than
15% during the time that the feedback system was on, whereas the integrated intensity dropped
by almost a factor of 2 after the feedback system had been disabled for just 1.5 hours.

2.4.2.5

Conclusions and future directions

Here we have demonstrated a kHz laser beam pointing feedback system in which the beam
position and angle was stabilized in a single feedback system, rather than two independent feedback
systems, for the first time. The measured performance of the feedback system is consistent withthe design of the feedback loop, and is currently limited by the low sampling rate set by the CCD
detectors. However, new CMOS detectors with USB 3.0 communications promise sampling rates
up to 350 Hz, which should enable better than an order of magnitude improvement in feedback
bandwidth. Additionally, the digital feedback system described here could in principle be implemented with PSDs, which can make measurements at kHz rates and, like CCDs, are capable of
sub-µm centroid resolution. Finally, this system provides a way to quantify the sources of noise
affecting the beam pointing, so that if possible the noise sources can be tracked down and reduced.
We demonstrated the utility of the digital feedback technique by applying the feedback system to an HHG source. The feedback prevents the driving laser from drifting into higher-orderwaveguide modes on the many-minute timescale, in addition to improving the short-term (several
second timescale) stability of the HHG source. This is an important development for applicationsof HHG sources. In particular, coherent imaging techniques will benefit, which make use of the full

65

Figure 2.17: High harmonic beam data, integrated along the horizontal direction as a function oftime, showing both long- and short-term stability improvement. (a) Long-term harmonic stability
data. The dashed line shows the point where the feedback was turned off. (b) Short-term harmonicstability data (zoomed in from (a)). Again, the dashed line shows the point at which the feedback
system was turned off.

66
HHG beam and require high, stable photon flux with stable beam pointing in order to achieve highresolution [182, 183].

2.5

Future prospects for HHG
As discussed in this chapter, HHG is a unique light source that relies on extreme nonlin-

ear optics to produce high energy photons, and macroscopic phase matching to produce bright,
coherent EUV beams. This process is highly sensitive to the properties of the fundamental driving laser, including pulse duration and stability. Here we have described the implementation of afrequency-domain, SLM-based pulse shaper which enables mJ-level pulses with transform-limited
pulse duration in order to produce very high peak intensities with a compact laser system. Additionally, we have described a beam pointing feedback system to improve the stability of the amplifiersystem, preventing fundamental laser energy from coupling into higher-order waveguide modes andthus improving the stability of the HHG source.
HHG sources have already been demonstrated which can produce soft X-ray beams withwavelength below 1 nm through the use of longer-wavelength driving lasers [31,184]. The motivation
for using longer wavelength fundamental light to produce short wavelength HHG sources is traced
to the λ20 scaling of the HHG cutoff, from Eq. (2.14). Soon, these lasers will likely be available
at kHz repetition rates to provide high energy HHG sources bright enough for many scientificapplications.

Chapter 3

Coherent Diffractive Imaging with Ultrafast High Harmonic Sources

Dramatic advances in coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) using light in the extreme ultraviolet(EUV) and X-ray regions of the spectrum over the past 15 years have resulted in near diffractionlimited imaging capabilities using both large and small scale light sources [38, 185]. In CDI, also
called “lensless imaging,” coherent light illuminates a sample, and the scattered light is directly
captured by a detector without any intervening imaging optic. Phase retrieval algorithms are thenapplied to the data set to recover an image. In addition to the absence of aberrations and thediffraction-limited resolution, one of the main utilities of CDI is that due to the necessary phaseretrieval, images are reconstructed that have phase and amplitude contrast simultaneously. Thisfeature can provide a wealth of information about objects under study. CDI has already been used
to study a variety of biological and materials systems [22, 186–189]. Indeed, CDI can be used to
study any system which exhibits any type of phase or amplitude contrast.
While CDI has also been applied to visible-light microscopy with interesting applications tobiological studies in particular, the discussion here will be restricted to the use of CDI for imaging
in the EUV and X-ray regions of the spectrum. The chapter will begin with a brief introduction toscattering theory and available contrast mechanisms in the EUV and X-ray regions of the spectrum.
A discussion of the principles behind CDI and its implementation will follow. This section will focus
on two-dimensional (2D) phase retrieval and the various CDI algorithms developed thus far. Finally,
the chapter will end with a discussion of HHG’s suitability as a light source for EUV and soft X-ray
CDI.

68

3.1

Diffraction theory
In order to understand the basis behind the CDI technique, it is first important to understandthe scattering and subsequent diffraction of light. In general, the scattering process is the sourceof contrast for the image. Most scattering in the EUV and X-ray region can be considered to be
due to either elastic scattering from electrons or electron photoabsorption. In CDI, the exit surface
wave (ESW) after scattering then diffracts towards the detector where it is measured. Diffractionof light in free space simply obeys the wave equation for electromagnetic fields.

3.1.1

EUV/X-ray scattering

At relatively high photon energies (hard X-rays), far from electronic energy levels in atoms,
the amount of scattering is simply proportional to the electron density. At photon energies below
the rest mass of the electron, the scattering process is elastic (photon energy-conserving) [97].
Usually in imaging situations these electrons are bound to atoms. Because atomic-level imaging isbeyond the scope of the work presented in this thesis, we will restrict the discussion of scattering byelectrons to its effect on the effective index of refraction, treating the distribution of atoms as quasicontinuous. In this situation, we can write the index of refraction, nr , of an atomic distributionasrenr (E) = 1 − δ − i β = 1 −
2π



hc
E

2 X

nq f0q (E),

(3.1)

q

where δ is the refractive index decrement, β is the absorption index, re is the classical electron
radius, E is the photon energy, nq is the number of atoms per unit volume of type q, and f0q is thecomplex forward atomic scattering factor for atoms of type q [40]. Note that the sign convention
used here is based on the engineering convention of a forward-propagating wave. That is, a plane
wave is written as exp[i (ωt − kz)]. This is important in the case of absorbing materials (β > 0).
We will switch back to the physics convention later.
The atomic scattering factor can be separated into its real and imaginary part as f0q =f1q + i f2q . The imaginary part, f2q , is proportional to the photoabsorption cross-section of a given

69
atom, σq , which has been measured extensively over a broad photon energy range (30-30,000 eV)
for elements with atomic number 92 and below [40]. Explicitly, f2q can be expressed as [190]f2q (E) =Eσq (E)
.
2hcre

(3.2)

Then, using the Kramers-Kronig relation between the real and imaginary index of refraction, f1q
can be calculated as [190]1f1q (E) = Zq∗ +πre hcZ∞
0E02 σq (E0 ) 0dE ,E2 − E02(3.3)

where Zq∗ ≈ Zq − (Zq /82.6)2.37 is a corrected version of the atomic number Zq , taking into accountrelativistic effects. Conveniently, the atomic scattering factors have been tabulated and are available
online for elements 1 − 92, along with other optical properties courtesy of the Center for X-ray
Optics (CXRO) [191]. From Eqs. (3.1) and (3.3), it can be seen that for photon energies far fromatomic resonances, δ is simply proportional to the total electron density. Near resonances, electron
photoabsorption causes the additional dispersion and absorption terms. There are many elementspecific resonances in the EUV region of the spectrum, which leads to element-specific indices ofrefraction and hence elemental contrast in EUV imaging.

3.1.2

EUV/X-ray diffraction

Diffraction in the EUV and X-ray region of the spectrum can be treated in much the same
way as it is treated for visible light. We will start this section by considering exact propagation oflight through vacuum through a solution to the Helmholtz wave equation. Next, we will consider
non-paraxial, far-field diffraction in transmission and in reflection from a tilted surface. Finally, we
will revisit the scattering of light by material with a brief review of the first Born approximation,
which can be used to obtain three-dimensional (3D) information under appropriate conditions.

70
3.1.2.1

The Helmholtz equation and the angular spectrum approach

It is appropriate to begin with the free space wave equation in the absence of source terms,
derived from Maxwell’s equations [97]:∇2 E +

ω2
E = 0,
c2(3.4)

where harmonic time dependence of the field has been assumed, as exp(−i ωt). From here, we willassume linear, transverse polarization and a scalar electric field, E. As is often the case in thesolution of differential equations, we will start by taking a Fourier transform, in this case in thetransverse coordinates. This results in−kx2 − ky2 +ω2∂2+ 2 Ẽ(kx , ky , z) = 0
∂z 2
c

(3.5)

where we have evaluated the transverse Laplacian by making use of the Fourier transform of a
derivative, and where Ẽ represents the Fourier transform of E in the transverse coordinates, x andy. We can recognize the solution to Eq. (3.5) immediately asẼ(kx , ky , z) = A exp (i kz z) ,(3.6)

where A is a constant that can be determined from knowledge of the field in a given plane andq
kz is the propagation constant, which is restricted to kz = k02 − kx2 − ky2 , where k0 is defined as
k0 = ω/c = 2π/λ. This solution allows calculation of the field at any desired plane from knowledgeof the field at an input plane. The full solution can be written asn qoE(x, y, z) = F−1 F {E(x, y, 0)} exp i z k02 − kx2 − ky2 .

(3.7)

From the above equation, it is clear that propagation through free space acts as a kind of low passfilter, attenuating spatial frequencies beyond 1/λ. This is the source of the so-called “diffraction
limit”. While the above equation is very useful due to the fact that it is an exact solution to thewave equation in free space (assuming the field goes to zero at infinity in the transverse direction),in practice it can be difficult to use for propagation for large distances due to the highly oscillatory

71
nature of the exponential for large z  λ. This problem can be solved by splitting a large distancez into N small steps ∆z = z/N [192].
While not strictly exact, Eq. (3.7) can also be used to propagate through inhomogeneousmaterials if the propagation step size is small compared to λ, so that diffraction from one step tothe next is negligible. This can be done by multiplying the exit wave at each step m, E(x, y, m∆z),
by a thin “slice” of the material to account for the inhomogeneity of the index of refraction. The
slice represents the variation of the index of refraction away from unity, as [192]
Om (x, y) = exp [−i δ(x, y, m∆z)∆z − β(x, y, m∆z)] .

(3.8)

This approach is valid for incident plane waves in the case of a weakly scattering object (δ, β < 1),since it is incorrect for light propagating any direction but along z. However, this approach wasused in Ch. 4 to simulate propagation through a thick object, with good experimental agreement.
As mentioned above, Eq. (3.7) is only practical for propagation over short distances, sincefurther propagation requires splitting the distance into smaller steps. For computationally efficient propagation over large distances, it is useful to make some approximations. The Fresnel
approximation can be obtained quickly from Eq. (3.7) when the paraxial approximation is made.

3.1.2.2

Non-paraxial, far-field diffraction, in transmission and reflection

For non-paraxial, far-field calculations, the vectorial Kirchhoff diffraction integral is a goodstarting point, which is derived through a Green’s function solution to the Helmholtz equation.
Here we are assuming that we know the scattered electric field, Esc , at surface S1 , consistent with
the idea of the ESW mentioned earlier. This can be written as [97]


Z
0
0
eik0 r−ik·r0 ck × (n × Bsc (r ))00
Esc (r) =k× e− n × Esc (r ) da0 ,
i 4πr
k0

(3.9)

S1

where r represents the far-field coordinates, r0 represents the coordinates of surface S1 , k points
in the direction of far-field propagation, r̂, with |k| = k0 , and n0 is the normal to surface S1 . In
the absence of surface currents, the first term in the integrand is zero [97]. In the case of a planar
surface, n0 can be taken outside the integral.

72
We will first briefly examine the transmission case. If we assume that the scattered field isweak compared to the incident field, we must write the total electric field in the far field asZeik0 r0 E(r) = Ein (r) + i(3.10)
k × e−ik·r n0 × Esc (r0 ) da0
4πr
S1

If we assume that the scattered electric field bears information about the scatterer, as we know it
does via the ESW, in the case of a thin object at normal incidence we can see that the integral is
proportional to the Fourier transform of the scattering surface. Furthermore, we can see that in
the case of a weak scatterer, Ein interferes with the scattered light in the far field. In the case of atightly focused incident beam, this results in a Gabor hologram. An experimental example of thiscase is found later in this thesis in Section 4.2 [182].
If we go back to Eq. (3.9) and this time consider a reflection geometry, all of the light in thedomain of the far-field detector can be considered to be scattered. The understanding gained hereis critical for the experiments described in Ch. 5 later in this thesis. We will again assume that
there are no surface currents, and that the S1 is a planar surface. We will also assume that Ein
has polarization perpendicular to the plane of incidence (s-polarized), since this typically resultsin higher EUV reflectivity. We can now just write this asZ
eik0 r0 
Esc (r) = i
k × e−ik·r n0 × Esc (r0 ) da0 ,4πr(3.11)

S1

which is the same as Eq. (3.10) except that we have subtracted Ein . In this case, we see that thecross product in the integrand evaluates to a vector that is in the plane of S1 , as shown in Fig. 3.1.
Here we have assumed that on the plane of S1 , the polarization of Esc is the same as for Ein . The
second cross product between k and this vector is the source of the so-called “obliquity factor”.
Thus for s-polarized light, the magnitude of the obliquity factor can be calculated ass 0 2x̂ · r0,
Os (r, n ) = 1 −r(3.12)

where the primed (S1 ) coordinate system has been defined in Fig. 3.1. An analogous expression for
p-polarized light can be derived to bes0

Op (r, n , θi ) = cos θi1−ŷ0 · rr

2
(3.13)

73
The introduction of the obliquity factors in Eqs. (3.12) and (3.13), when combined with
Eq. (3.11) allow us to write the complex amplitude of the scattered field as
k0 eik0 r
Esc (r) =Oj (r, n0 , θi )
4π r

Z

0

e−ik·r Ein (r0 )O(r0 )da0

(3.14)

S1

where the incident field, Ein , has polarization j 3 {s, p}, and the scattered field is assumed to be
due to the complex, spatially-dependent surface reflectivity O(r0 ). Here we are assuming that O
is truly 2D; later we will see that what really matters is that the exit wave can be factored into afunction representing the object, O, and the incident field, Ein [85]. Thus we see that in a reflection
geometry, the scattered light is still proportional to the Fourier transform of the “object”. However,at non-normal incidence some care is needed in the evaluation of this Fourier transform. The spatial
frequencies at which this Fourier transform is evaluated can be made explicit if we separate theincident field into its amplitude and phase. For the simplest interpretation, we will assume that theincident beam is collimated (kin constant), so that we can separate the amplitude and the phaseof the field as Ein (r0 ) = ψin (r0 ) exp(i kin · r0 ). If we now define the momentum transfer, q = k − kin ,we see that we can rewrite Eq. (3.14) as
Esc (r) =k0 eik0 r
Oj (r, n0 , θi )
4π r

Z

0

e−iq·r ψin (r0 )O(r0 )da0 .

(3.15)

S1

Thus we see that the scattered field is proportional to the Fourier transform of the surface object,O(r0 ), with a position-dependent scaling. Additionally, for the case of non-normal incidence we seethat the dot product in the exponential, q·r0 , is not trivial to evaluate. In order to correctly interpret
this, we can begin by defining the unprimed (detector) coordinate system such that ẑ points in the
direction of the specular reflection. Then we can write the momentum transfer as [193]
"
!
! #
x
y
z
p
q(r) = k0+ sin 2θi x̂ + pŷ + p+ cos 2θi ẑ ,x2 + y 2 + z 2
x2 + y 2 + z 2
x2 + y 2 + z 2(3.16)
where the incident k-vector has been written explicitly in terms of the angle of incidence, θi . In
order to associate the components of q with the spatial frequencies of the scattering surface, wemust find the components of q in the primed coordinate system. For the case shown in Fig. 3.1, we74

Figure 3.1: Illustration of the source of the obliquity factor for s-polarized light. Only the planeof incidence (x0 − z 0 plane) is shown for simplicity. Here, the angle of incidence is θi , the primed
coordinate system is aligned with surface S1 as shown and the unprimed coordinate system isaligned with the specular reflection, ksp , as shown.

75
can accomplish this by performing a simple coordinate transformation. Specifically, we can performa rotation about ŷ by an angle −θi . The result isq(r0 ) = (qx cos θi − qz sin θi ) x̂0 + qy ŷ0 + (qx sin θi + qz cos θi ) ẑ0 ,(3.17)

with qx , qy , and qz defined as the components of q in the unprimed coordinates, as in Eq. (3.16).
With the momentum transfer written in this way the dot product in the Fourier kernel can beevaluated immediately. The coupling of far-field coordinates in fx = qx0 /2π and fy = qy0 /2π results
in a distorted-looking diffraction pattern, termed conical diffraction [194]. An attempt to illustrate
this distortion is shown in Fig. 3.2.
In the case of CDI, the far-field intensity is measured with the goal of retrieving the object
function, O(r0 ). This is typically accomplished by relating the far field pattern to the modulus
square of the Fourier transform of the object, and fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) are used topropagate between object space and the far field. In the non-normal-incidence reflection geometry,some pre-processing of the measured pattern is required. As we have seen, what is actually measuredis
Os (r, n0 )2
I(r) ∝
r22Ze−iq·r0ψin (r0 )O(r0 )da0 ,(3.18)

S1

where we have assumed an s-polarized incident wave and I(r) is the intensity of the far-field
diffraction pattern. In order to find the magnitude of the 2D Fourier transform of O(r) from themeasurement, the measured intensity can be rescaled by r2 /Os (r)2 . After this rescaling, in order to
use the FFT the measurement must be interpolated onto a grid which is linear in qx0 and qy0 from
one that is linear in x and y, using Eqs. (3.16) and (3.17). After this is done, the object function
can be retrieved using CDI as usual. This rescaling and interpolation method, termed tilted plane
correction (TPC) [193], was used for all the image reconstructions in Ch. 5.

3.1.2.3

First Born approximation with application to 3D imaging

We now turn to the first Born approximation to consider the diffraction pattern produced
from a small, weakly scattering 3D object. This is, for instance, a useful approach for 3D imaging of

76

Figure 3.2: Illustration of distortion of the diffraction pattern due to conical diffraction. Two final
k-vectors (k+ and k− ) are shown such that (q+ · x̂0 ) = −(q− · x̂0 ), meaning that these two k-vectors
contain information about the same spatial frequency of the S1 . However, the locations on thedetector where the light scattered to these k-vectors is measured (at positions shown by the bluedots) are very asymmetric with respect to the position of the specular reflection (not shown) on
the detector.

77
biological cells. Often, it is necessary to use concepts from tomography [74, 186, 189, 195], althoughsome work has been done to develop a technique called ankylography, which requires one to several
diffraction patterns to generate a 3D image [196]. Here we will see that when certain conditions
are met, limited 3D information can be obtained from a single diffraction pattern.
To begin, we can start from the scalar Helmholtz equation, except this time we will allow forvariation of the index of refraction, n(r). This modifies Eq. (3.4) to read as
 2

∇ + k02 n(r)2 E(r) = 0.

(3.19)

Now, motivated by the discussion in Section 3.1.1, we will write the index of refraction in the
EUV/X-ray region as n = 1 − δ, where for simplicity we are omitting β. However, it can beinserted with δ in the end. As mentioned earlier, for hard X-rays δ is simply proportional to theelectron density. If we assume that δ  1, we can approximate n2 ≈ 1 − 2δ. We will also assume
that δ is only non-zero in a local region of space, which will become important later. Inserting thisfor the index of refraction in Eq. (3.19), we have 2
∇ + k02 − 2k02 δ(r) E(r) = 0.

(3.20)

Now we see that we have an inhomogeneous Helmholtz equation. Our approach to the solution will
be to expand E in a series solution, in orders of δ. This can be written asE=∞XEi δ i(3.21)

i=0

Since we have already dropped orders of δ 2 in Eq. (3.20), upon insertion of this series solution wewill keep only zeroth and first order terms. We will also assume that E0 is the incident field, and isthus a solution to the homogeneous Helmholtz equation. With those steps taken, we are left withthe following equation:∇2 + k02 E1 (r) = 2k02 δ(r)E0 (r),(3.22)

where we have allowed E1 to absorb δ. We can now use the Green’s function for the Helmholtz
equation [97],G(r, r0 ) =

eikR
,
4πR

(3.23)

78
with R = |r − r0 |, to solve Eq. (3.22). The assumption that both E1 and G decay to zero in thelimit as r → ∞ gives the following solution:
E1 (r) = −2k02

Zeik0 RE0 (r0 )δ(r0 ) d3 r0
4πR(3.24)

V

where the limits of integration extend over the region where δ is non-zero. Note that up until thispoint the only assumption we have made is that δ  1. However, here it is appropriate to makea further assumption that r  D, where D is the approximate diameter of the scattering object(where δ is non-zero). This allows us to expand k0 R in orders of D/r as [97]
k0 02 (k · r0 )2
k0 R = k0 r − k · r +
r −
+ ···
2r
k02
0

(3.25)

With this expansion, the magnitude of the nth term is on the order of (k0 r)(D/r)n in the region
where δ is non-zero. At this point a quantity called the Fresnel number should be mentioned, named
after Augustin-Jean Fresnel, which is defined as F = D2 /λr. The third term of the expansion has
maximum magnitude ≈ F , and when D  λ can be important to keep even when the field ismeasured far from the object. Thus F can be used to classify different types of far-field diffraction.
The Fraunhofer regime is characterized by F  1, the Fresnel regime is characterized by F ≈ 1,
and F > 1 is referred to as the near field. For the Fraunhofer case, only the first two terms in
the expansion are kept, whereas for the Fresnel case, the third term must also be kept. For thenear-field case, the spectrum of plane waves approach can be used, described in Section 3.1.2.1.
Before we continue with the general Fraunhofer case, it is worthwhile to make a comment
about the Fresnel case. The coupling between the primed and unprimed coordinates in the third
term is in general not possible to deal with using a Fourier transform approach to far-field propagation. However, if the far-field measurement is paraxial, we can assume that k ≈ k0 ẑ and thatz = L with L the distance from object to detector, so that the third term becomes k0 (x02 + y 02 )/2L
and is dependent on only the primed coordinates.
In order to consider the Fraunhofer case, we can take just the first two terms in the expansion

79(3.25). After inserting this approximation into Eq. (3.24), we havee
E1 (r) = −2k02

ik0 r Z

4πr0e−ik·r E0 (r0 )δ(r0 ) d3 r0(3.26)

V

If we again assume illumination by a collimated beam, and choose k0 = k0 ẑ, then we can see thatwith uniform illumination Eq. (3.26) is proportional to the 3D Fourier transform of δ(r0 ), withmeasurement of the 3D Fourier transform possible at spatial frequencies defined by q = k − k0 .
Using the same notation as in Eq. (3.15), we can write the final expression for the Fraunhofer Born
approximation ase
E1 (r) = −2k02

ik0 r Z

4πr

0e−iq·r ψ0 (r0 )δ(r0 ) d3 r0(3.27)

V

For a given wavelength λ, we can see that the allowed values for q exist on a sphere of radius k0
which is shifted from the origin by k0 ; this is called the Ewald sphere.
It is important to note that Eq. (3.26) is non-paraxial. Furthermore, with adjustment of k0
the 3D Fourier transform of δ can be measured at additional spatial frequencies. This adjustment
can consist of either rotation of the object or by changing the wavelength. With measurementin the forward direction with enough rotations of the object, the magnitude of the 3D Fouriertransform can be obtained at most locations within the 3D Fourier cube that has maximum width
2k0 , which forms the basis for 3D Fourier tomography. In certain cases, with measurement of
the scattered intensity at high enough scattering angles, a technique called ankylography can beused to fill in the rest of the 3D Fourier cube to reconstruct a 3D image of the object with asingle measurement [196, 197]. Again, in order to use the FFT, an interpolation similar to that
described in Section 3.1.2.2, where a pattern measured on a grid that is linearly spaced in r must
be interpolated onto a grid that is linearly spaced in q.
A final couple of miscellaneous comments concerning Eq. (3.27) are warranted. First, in general the far-field measurement includes the bright incident field, E0 (r), which must be subtracted.
Second, the generalization to non-collimated incident fields (e.g. a diverging Gaussian beam) is
straightforward and simply consists of multiplying ψ0 by a phase term dependent only on theprimed coordinates. This generalization to non-collimated incident fields can also be applied to the80reflection case in Eq. (3.15).

3.2

Principle of CDI
In the previous section, we have seen that diffraction under certain conditions can provide

information about the magnitude of the Fourier transform of a scattering object. In certain cases,
the measured intensity must be rescaled and/or interpolated onto a grid that is linearly spacedin spatial frequency before it can be related to the scatterer using a simple FFT. However, once
these corrections have been made, we can take advantage of the large body of work that has been
devoted to 2D (and 3D) phase retrieval from knowledge of the Fourier modulus of an object (ormore generally an ESW). This work began in the 1970’s at a time when computational optics was
becoming practical due to the introduction of the FFT [78, 198]. As an interesting side note, theFFT algorithm was actually first invented by Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1805.
This section will begin with an explanation of the so-called oversampling requirement, which
traditionally limited CDI to small objects. A brief discussion of the traditional coherence (spatial
and temporal) requirements for CDI will follow; in the previous section, full spatial and temporal
coherence was assumed in order to show that the diffraction pattern of a scatterer is proportional
to its Fourier transform. Finally, the various approaches to phase retrieval in CDI which have beendeveloped thus far will be broadly discussed, some of which relax the traditional object size andcoherence requirements.

3.2.1

Oversampling in CDI

The oversampling requirement can be understood via the Shannon sampling theorem [199],
which states that a band-limited function can be recovered fully if sampled at a high enough rate
relative to the band limit. The Nyquist frequency is the 1D version of the generalized N-dimensional
sampling rate, in which the sampling rate of a 1D signal must be twice as high as the highest
frequency content of the signal in order to be considered Nyquist-sampled. We are concernedwith the spatial frequency content of the measurement, which in the case of CDI is the diffraction

81
amplitude. This may be counter-intuitive, since the diffraction pattern itself represents the spatial
frequency content of the scattering object. However, due to the Fourier relationship between theobject and its diffracted amplitude, this just means that the band limit of the diffraction patterndepends on the spatial extent of the object.
While it is the diffraction amplitude (and hence electric field) that is proportional to the
Fourier transform of the object, it is the diffraction intensity that is actually measured. This is
proportional to the square of the amplitude, and from a simple example we will see that sampling
the intensity pattern at its Nyquist rate actually corresponds to sampling the diffracted amplitude
at twice its Nyquist rate, hence the term “oversampling”. For the example, we will use the simple
case of a square object as the scatterer, defined by
 0
 0
x
y
O(x , y ) = rect
rect
,
D
D
0

0

(3.28)

which means that the square has sides of length D. Conveniently, the Fourier transform of thisobject is easily calculated analytically, and is proportional toF{O(x0 , y 0 )} ∝sin(qx0 D/2) sin(qy0 D/2).
qx0 D/2
qy0 D/2(3.29)

From the discussion in the previous section, we know that the far field coordinates in the simple
normal-incidence geometry are related to spatial frequency as q = k0 (r/r − ẑ). Paraxially, thismeans that in terms of far-field spatial coordinates qx0 = 2πx/λz, with an analogous expression for
qy0 . This means we can rewrite Eq. (3.29) in terms of far-field (detector) coordinates paraxially asψ(x, y) ∝sin(πxD/λz) sin(πyD/λz).
πxD/λzπyD/λz(3.30)

This function is Nyquist-sampled in each dimension if measurements are made with a spacing of
λz/D or finer (at least two measurements per period of the sine function). However, what ismeasured is actually the diffracted intensity, which is proportional toI(x, y) ∝sin2 (πxD/λz) sin2 (πyD/λz).
(πxD/λz)2 (πyD/λz)2(3.31)

82
From a simple trigonometric identity, we can rewrite this to explicitly reveal the spatial frequency
content of the intensity, as
I(x, y) ∝1 − cos(2πxD/λz) 1 − cos(2πyD/λz).
(πxD/λz)2(πyD/λz)2(3.32)In order for the intensity to be Nyquist-sampled, measurements must be made with a spacing of
λz/2D or finer. This requirement is a factor of 2 stricter than that required for the amplitude. This
simple example can be made more general by allowing for the object to have internal structure.
From the inverse relationship between spatial extent and spatial frequency, we can see that thisadditional structure only contributes to lower spatial frequency content in the diffraction pattern.
Thus from this sample example, we can see that the diffraction intensity typically has twice theband limit that the corresponding amplitude does. For this reason, in CDI the diffraction amplitude
must be oversampled by at least a factor of 2. The linear oversampling ratio, OS, can be defined
as
OS =

λz
pD

(3.33)

where p is the pixel width of the detector used for the measurement. Due to the Shannon sampling√
theorem, for N dimensions the linear oversampling ratio must be ≥ N 2 [80]; in 2D this is aslight relaxation with respect to the 1D requirement of 2. However, in practice, the presence ofmeasurement noise usually means that OS ≥ 4 produces better results.
For an intuitive understanding of what the oversampling requirement implies, it is helpful toconsider the size of the object relative to the size of the spatial grid supported by the sampling
rate of the detector. The answer is simply that the width of the grid, W , relative to the width ofthe object is simply W/D = OS. Thus for a linear oversampling ratio OS = 2, the object only
takes up 1/4 of the image area. This is the origin for the object isolation requirement in CDI; if
the object is not isolated the diffraction pattern will not be sampled appropriately. Fortunately,
there are some ways to relax this requirement which will be discussed later.

83
3.2.2

Coherence requirements

In the consideration of coherence requirements for CDI, it is most convenient to work withspatial and temporal coherence lengths, which we will call ls and lt respectively. Spatial coherence
is defined transverse to the direction of propagation. The temporal coherence length is defined in
the direction of propagation, so it can also be called longitudinal coherence. Coherence lengths aredefined in such a way that interference between two waves which are scattered at two points in space(transversely or longitudinally) that are separated by one coherence length have fringe visibilityof 88% [200]. The loss of fringe visibility, or coherence, is due to fluctuating phase relationships
between points further apart than a coherence length.
Traditionally, CDI treats the diffraction pattern as simply proportional to the Fourier transform of the entire object, meaning that full spatial coherence is assumed. Thus, we must requirethat ls > D in the plane of the object. Fortunately, for sources which intrinsically have only partial
spatial coherence (such as an undulator), ls can be increased at the expense of photon efficiency.
For instance, a slit (or aperture in 2D) which has width, d, smaller than ls in the plane can beplaced in the beam path. From that point, the light that is transmitted through the slit can beconsidered to have full spatial coherence between any two transverse points at which there is appreciable intensity. Thus, due to diffraction from the slit, the coherence length ls grows as λz/2πd,where z is the distance from the slit.
While CDI also assumes full temporal coherence, the practical requirements on lt are slightly
less strict than for ls . However, decreased temporal coherence is allowed at the expense of object
complexity, which can be defined as the ratio D/r, where r is the resolution of the reconstructed
image. This is shown visually in Fig. 3.3. The best attainable resolution is limited by the NA to
be
r≥

λ
.
2 sin θ(3.34)

However, from Fig. 3.3, we see that the temporal coherence length limits the fringe visibility for

84scattering angles
sin θ ≥

lt.
D

(3.35)

Finite temporal coherence arises when the illumination is not monochromatic. The temporal coherence length can be defined by the coherence time, which is related to the spectral bandwidthof the illumination by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, so that the coherence time can be
defined roughly as τc = 1/∆ν. This can be easily understood in the case of pulsed sources fromthe discussion in Section 2.1. In the case of a pulsed source, the coherence time is just the pulse
duration. Two split pulses that are separated in time by more than the pulse duration cannot
produce interference (except in the special case when they are separated by an integer multipleof the time between pulses in the pulse train, with stable carrier envelope phase). The coherence
length is obtained by calculating how far the wave has traveled during a coherence time, which inthe case of light traveling in vacuum means lt = cτc . Written in terms of wavelength, this is
lt =

λ2
.
∆λ

(3.36)

If we combine Eqs. (3.34) - (3.36), we can see that for traditional CDI, the maximum achievable
resolution is limited by the temporal coherence length to be
r≥

∆λ D
.
λ 2

(3.37)As predicted earlier, this means that the temporal coherence, which is related to the spectral
bandwidth of the source, results in a limit on the maximum image complexity as
D
λ
≤2
.
r
∆λ

(3.38)As mentioned before, these requirements can be relaxed to a certain extent by modifications to
the most basic CDI algorithms. This is accomplished by separating the illumination into either (orboth) spatial and spectral modes [83]. For the most part, this relaxation of coherence requirements
assumes that the object appears identical to all spatial and spectral modes. However, in the caseof ptychography, simulations and measurements with visible light suggest that this assumption is
unnecessary, making this a potential hyperspectral imaging technique [91].

85

Figure 3.3: Illustration showing the implications of finite temporal coherence. At a scattering angleof θ, light scattered from one side of an object of width D will travel a distance D sin θ further tothe detector than light scattered from the other side of the object. For temporal coherence lengths
less than D, the fringe visibility will be reduced at angles where sin θ > lt /D.

86
3.2.3

Phase retrieval in CDI

Since the first demonstrations of CDI at visible wavelengths [37] and at X-ray wavelengths[38], many extensions to the basic CDI algorithm have been developed. In this section, the basic
algorithm will first be discussed followed by a brief discussion of the various extensions. Extensions to CDI which relax the object isolation requirement include keyhole CDI [201], apertured
illumination CDI [193, 202], and ptychography CDI [85, 86]. Extensions which relax the coherence
requirements involve the separation of the illumination into multiple spatial and temporal modes
to account for partial spatial and temporal coherence [81–83, 203]. Recently, ptychography CDI
has also shown promise as a particularly powerful method to relax the requirements for temporal
coherence, with the possibility of retrieving independent images for each spectral component of theillumination [91].

3.2.3.1

Basic CDI algorithms and projections

The concept of generalized projections is key to understanding all implementations of CDI.
Generally, CDI phase retrieval involves projections of the current guess for the solution onto constraint sets that exist in both the object space and its Fourier space [73,77]. The differences between
the various implementations of CDI lie both in which specific constraint sets are used and in how
the projections are applied. The various algorithms that lie at the core of CDI are the error reduction (ER) [39], hybrid input-output (HIO) [72], difference map (DM) [77], and relaxed averaged
alternating reflections (RAAR) [204] algorithms, which are good starting points before discussing
further enhancements to CDI.
Each of the algorithms listed above rely on basic projections, usually consisting of a modulus
projection, which acts in the Fourier domain, and support and non-negativity projections, which
act in the object domain. The modulus projection, πm is defined asπ̃m ρ̃i (q) =pρ̃i (q)I(q)|ρ̃i (q)|(3.39)

where πm = F−1 π̃m F, ρ̃i (q) = Fρi (r) represents the Fourier transform of the current guess, ρi (r),87
and I(q) is the measured diffraction intensity [73]. The effect of this projection is to keep thecurrent guess for the phase of the complex diffraction amplitude, while forcing the magnitude to
be consistent with the measured intensity. The support projection, πs , is simply defined as [73] ρi (r) if r ∈ S
πs ρi (r) =(3.40) 0otherwise
where S constitutes a region in object space known as the support. Use of a support constraint in
CDI is motivated by the requirement that the diffraction pattern must be oversampled as discussed
earlier, leading to an object which takes up less than half the area of the image. The support caneither be pre-defined as a known region, or it can be updated dynamically while the algorithm isrunning using the shrinkwrap method [205]. Finally, the non-negativity (or positivity) projection,
πp , is defined asπp ρi (r) = ρi (r) if 0 < φi (r) < φmax

 0

(3.41)

otherwise

where the phase of the object, φi (r), is calculated in the usual way, taking into account whichquadrant of the complex plane that ρi (r) lies in, and φm ax can range between 0 and 2π. From here
we will assume that the non-negativity projection is applied together with the support projection, sothat πs+ = πs πp . In order to describe a single iteration of each of the above-mentioned algorithms,
the only other definition needed is that of the “reflector”, which is defined as R = 2πj − I, where
I stands for the identity and j stands for any of the basic projections.
The projections/reflections necessary to calculate each successive iteration for each algorithm
are shown in Table 3.1. Note that each successive iteration for all of the algorithms listed can be
written in terms of the projections defined above. The algorithm is said to have converged when
ρi+1 = ρi ; that is, the algorithm has reached a fixed point.

3.2.3.2

Relaxation of the object isolation requirement

As mentioned earlier, the traditional CDI algorithm requires the object to be isolated due tothe oversampling requirement. Here we will describe the various CDI implementations which relax

88
Algorithm
ER
HIO
DM
RAAR

ρi+1 =
πs+ πm ρiπm ρi (r)if r ∈ S and 0 < φi (r) < φmax
(I − βπm )ρi (r) otherwise{I + πs+ [(β + 1)πm − I] − πm [(β + 1)πs+ − I]}ρi[ 12 β(Rs+ Rm + I) + (1 − β)πm ]ρi

Table 3.1: Formulas to calculate successive iterations for ER, HIO, DM and RAAR algorithms. β
is an adjustable parameter, usually chosen to be near 1. Adapted from [73].

this requirement. Oversampling of the diffraction pattern is still required; the isolation requirement
is simply transferred to the illumination instead.

3.2.3.3

Apertured illumination and keyhole CDI

Both keyhole CDI [201] and apertured illumination CDI [193] allow image reconstruction of
non-isolated, extended objects using just a single measured diffraction pattern. Apertured illumination is particularly simple. The beam is sent through an aperture which is imaged onto the sample
using a high quality optic, in order to produce sharp-edged illumination in the object plane. While
this technique has been demonstrated using visible wavelengths in both transmission and reflection [193], attempts to use this technique in the EUV have not been particularly successful [202].
This is likely due to the lack of high quality optics in the EUV.
Keyhole CDI can be considered to be a generalization to apertured illumination. For thistechnique, the illumination must be tightly focused; the sample is placed outside the focus of thebeam so that the incident wavefront is strongly curved. This geometry produces a so-called “hologram region” on the detector, where interference between light scattered from the sample withthe unscattered beam can be used to obtain a direct, low-resolution image of the object. Additionally, the resulting asymmetry in the diffraction pattern strengthens the modulus constraintused in the iterative phase retrieval algorithm. For this technique, precise knowledge of the illumination is necessary. Additionally, the distance from sample to focus must be accurately andprecisely known [206]. However, this is the only CDI technique that has been demonstrated in

89
the EUV/X-ray capable of producing an image of an extended sample using a single diffraction
pattern [182, 201, 207].

3.2.3.4

Ptychography CDI

Ptychography CDI is a fundamentally different extension to traditional CDI than apertured
illumination and keyhole. This technique shares almost the same experimental geometry and datacollection process as STXM, which was described briefly in Section 1.2.2.1. The major differenceis that ptychography is not limited in resolution to the spot size of a focused X-ray beam. This
comes from the fact that rather than collecting a single data-point per scan position, as in STXM,
ptychography involves measurement of a 2D diffraction pattern at each scan position [85,86]. Thus
the resolution is limited in the same way as it is for traditional CDI, by the wavelength and the
maximum scattering angle (NA).
One of the major benefits of ptychography is that the object and illumination functions arereconstructed separately, thus dividing out any non-uniformities in the illumination. That is, theexit surface wave at each scan position, ψj , is factorized intoψj (r) = O(r)P (r − Rj )(3.42)

where O and P represent the object and probe functions, respectively, and Rj represents the relative shift of the jth scan position. A ptychographical dataset involves a vast amount of information;
the independent reconstructions of both probe and object are enabled by use of an overlap constraint in the object domain. Typically, adjacent scan positions require > 70% area overlap [86].
Additionally, high quality reconstructions generally require grids with at least 4 × 4 scan positions.
The factorization in Eq. (3.42) is only valid under certain conditions derived in the supplementary material of Thibault et al. [85]. Intuitively, this validity condition amounts to requiring thatthe probe must not diffract across the thickness of the object by an amount measurable by the
resolution of the system. Written as an equation, this is equivalent toθp ∆z ≤ r

(3.43)

90
where θp is the divergence angle of the probe (assumed to be small), ∆z is the thickness of theobject, and r is the resolution of the system as defined in Eq. (3.34). If we assume that theillumination is Gaussian, from this intuitive requirement we recover the same condition as in [85],which is that
r
λ
≥
∆z
2w0

(3.44)

where w0 is the radius of the beam waist. Thus for thick objects, the factorization is only valid
when the illumination is loosely focused. However, Maiden et al. have shown that in the casewhere Eq. (3.42) is invalid, the vast amount of information collected in a ptychographical dataset issufficient to retrieve 3D information about the object [90]. This extension to ptychography involves
propagation through the object in the same way as described by Eq. (3.8).
Ptychography has generally been assumed to require the same oversampling requirements as
traditional CDI (Eq. (3.33)). However, it can be shown that this requirement can be overcome if theredundancy in the ptychographical dataset is high enough [79, 208]. The potential for information
extraction in ptychography may not yet be fully grasped. Recently, it was shown that the temporal
coherence requirements described in Section 3.2.2 can be relaxed through ptychography. Furthermore, this relaxation of requirements actually enables hyperspectral imaging, with the capability
to reconstruct unique object functions for each component of the illumination spectrum [91]. This
is in contrast to the methods described by Chen et al. [83], where the object must be assumed
to be identical for each spectral mode. The implications for this are extremely important. This
technique may, in fact, enable 3D surface imaging as well as hyperspectral EUV imaging acrossmultiple absorption edges simultaneously.

3.3

HHG as a source for CDI
The results presented in Chs. 4 and 5 are based on CDI using an HHG source. Thus it isworth commenting on the applicability of HHG for use as a light source for CDI. As discussed above,
traditional CDI requires light sources that have certain spatial and temporal coherence properties.

91
We will see that while HHG may not be the perfect source for every implementation of CDI, it may
be near-ideal for certain types of measurements.
HHG produced in a waveguide geometry has been shown to exhibit full spatial coherence
across a very wide wavelength range [31, 92,150, 209]. The full spatial coherence comes from phasematching the HHG process along the waveguide, so that the HHG source takes on the coherence
properties of the driving laser. Furthermore, when the laser is coupled into the lowest order modeof the waveguide (EH11 ), the output is near-Gaussian with full spatial coherence across the entire
beam. Thus, in contrast to most other coherent EUV/X-ray sources (with the exception of FEL’s),
the HHG output does not need to be spatially filtered in order for use as a CDI light source.
In terms of temporal coherence, HHG sources are not intrinsically monochromatic due to the
production of multiple phase-matched harmonics simultaneously. However, each harmonic can beconsidered to be quasi-monochromatic, with λ/∆λ ≈ 200 under optimized conditions [210]. Thus
for the traditional implementation of CDI, the HHG source must be spectrally filtered so thatthe object is illuminated by only one harmonic. Typically, this has been accomplished throughthe use of a pair of EUV multilayer mirrors. However, the multiple-harmonic structure of HHG
should not be seen as a drawback in terms of its applicability towards use as a light source for
CDI. Through knowledge of the incident spectrum, the object can be illuminated with multiple
harmonics simultaneously by separating the pattern numerically into its various spectral modes [81].
Furthermore, using ptychography independent images of the object at each wavelength can beobtained simultaneously [91]. Additionally, the short-pulsed femto/atto-second nature of HHG
light sources will enable dynamic studies of nanosystems with high spatial and temporal resolution
in the near future.
Finally, the compact, inexpensive nature of HHG is another major advantage. This means
that, while HHG doesn’t necessarily produce the very high flux that is characteristic of facility-scale
undulator, and in particular, FEL light sources, HHG provides a very accessible light source for
CDI that can be produced in many university-scale laboratories. Thus, the characteristics of HHG
make it a uniquely relevant source for high-resolution, dynamic imaging studies using CDI. The

92
next two chapters describe the development of a unique microscope based on HHG CDI, capableof imaging extended objects in both transmission and reflection geometries and poised to make acritical impact on nanoscale studies with its application to dynamic imaging.

Chapter 4

Table-top CDI with HHG Sources in Transmission

Previous work in this group demonstrated that HHG sources enable high-resolution imaging
based on CDI with a laboratory-scale source. However, these initial demonstrations were limited tovery simple samples, leaving work to be done to make this microscope into a useful tool for nanoscalestudies. Improvements to the CDI microscope began in transmission geometry, in order to increase
complexity slowly enough to maintain full understanding of each change to the microscope. The
first goal was to improve flux at 13 nm in order to push the resolution of the microscope even lower
than the 50 nm resolution that had previously been demonstrated using 29 nm HHG [211]. The
next goal involved extending the capability of the microscope to image more complex samples byapplying the keyhole CDI technique [201]. The implementation of these improvements is describedin this chapter.

4.1

High resolution CDI using 13 nm HHG
Previous work using 13 nm HHG light had been met with limited success due to low flux [212].

In order to remedy the problem of low flux, it was necessary to make several improvements to thesource prior to attempting further imaging at this wavelength.

4.1.1

Flux improvements to enable CDI at 13 nm

Traditionally, HHG sources at 13 nm wavelength have been difficult to work with. Relatively
high-reflectivity mirror coatings made from Mo/Si stacks are available at this wavelength (≈ 70%)

94[42], leading to interest from the semiconductor industry for use in EUV lithography processes [43].
However, a number of issues plague the generation of coherent EUV light at 13 nm using HHG.
These issues had to be resolved before high quality imaging was possible at this wavelength.
First, Zr filters are the best available choice in terms of transmission properties for separating
the fundamental driving laser light from the high harmonics within the range of 70-100 eV. However,
Zr has a very low thermal conductivity of 22.6 Wm−1 K−1 relative to, for instance, Al (anothercommon EUV filter material) which has a thermal conductivity of 237 Wm−1 K−1 . Thus, whateverlaser light that is absorbed (≈ 10%) by the filter can result in local heating and rapid damage tothe filter. Second, in order to generate harmonics in this wavelength range, noble gases with highionization potentials such as neon or helium must be used, which are highly absorbing between
20-200 eV. Finally, the higher ionization potential of helium and neon relative to argon means thathigher laser peak intensities are necessary to drive the HHG process than at lower photon energies,
resulting in higher necessary laser pulse energies for a given waveguide diameter [209].
Previously, the problem of low thermal conductivity in Zr was solved by coating a thin,≈ 20 nm, layer of Ag on the first filter following the HHG waveguide [212]. However, while the Aglayer reflected most of the residual 800 nm light, preventing the Zr filter from burning as quickly, it
absorbed ≈ 80% of the 13 nm light. This problem was solved by the insertion of “rejector” mirrors
into the beamline between the HHG source and the Zr filters. Silicon was chosen as a substrate
for the mirror due to its Brewster angle near glancing incidence (15◦ glancing) and because of its
high surface quality. Good candidates for coating materials needed to be dielectric, to prevent
laser absorption and damage, and highly reflective at 13 nm. Previous work showed that NbN wasa good candidate [213]. Due to difficulties in locating facilities able to coat NbN, other possible
dielectric coatings were considered: ZrO2 , (NbTa)2 O5 , HfO2 , and Sc2 O3 . As shown in Fig. 4.1,
ZrO2 was predicted to have the best 13 nm reflectivity near glancing incidence based on data fromthe Center for X-Ray Optics (CXRO) [40]. After obtaining samples from generous collaborators atColorado State University, reflectivity measurements (shown in Table 4.1 and plotted in Fig. 4.1)
confirmed that ZrO2 did indeed have the best reflectivity from among these candidates.

95

1
ZrO2
(NbTa)2O5

Reflectivity at 13 nm

0.8

Sc2O3
HfO2
SiO2

0.6

Si

0.4

0.2

0
5

10

15

20

Glancing Angle (degrees)
Figure 4.1: Theoretical reflectivity curves for a variety of coating materials at 13 nm wavelength
as a function of glancing angle. The coating surfaces are assumed to be perfectly smooth andthe 13 nm light is assumed to be p-polarized. The data is taken from the CXRO website [40].
Additional curves for Si and SiO2 are shown for reference. The measurements using 13 nm lightare shown as well, showing reasonably good agreement with the theoretical curves.

Coating Material
ZrO2(NbTa)2 O5
HfO2
Sc2 O3
SiO2

Reflectivity
0.70
0.65
0.59
0.65
0.54

Surface Quality
Excellent
Excellent
Poor
Excellent
Excellent

Table 4.1: Reflectivity measurements of a number of “rejector” mirror coating materials. The reflectivities were measured by comparing total throughput with reflections at 8◦ glancing incidence
to that with the mirror removed. The measurements can be compared with the theoretical reflectivity curves in Fig. 4.1. The measurements show reflectivities in general agreement with thetheoretical curves, and are plotted along with the curves in Fig. 4.1. Surface quality is based on
subjective analysis of the recorded beam in comparison to the undeflected beam.

96
A ZrO2 single-layer anti-reflection coating at 800 nm was optimized numerically using theFresnel equations, with the result that the coating should be 207 nm thick. As can be seen in
Fig. 4.2, the minimum theoretical reflectivity occurs near Si’s Brewster angle. However, as seenin Fig. 4.1, the 13 nm reflectivity is higher at smaller glancing angles, leading to a compromise of12◦ glancing incidence in the experiment. It is found that even with 5 − 10% reflectivity from therejector mirror, the Zr filters last indefinitely without damage. However, since the Si substrate isabsorbing at 800 nm, the substrate does eventually sustain damage. In the future, since the Zr
filters are able to withstand some finite laser power, transparent fused silica substrates coated with
ZrO2 may be used. As shown in Fig. 4.2, the reflectivity of these mirrors at 800 nm will be higher,
but the mirrors will likely last much longer before replacement is needed.
In the first implementations of the 13 nm coherent imaging beamline, the high absorptionof the gases used as HHG media was somewhat reduced by the use of differential pumping. The
differential pumping was implemented by placing a turbopump as close to the HHG waveguide as
possible, with a 3 mm aperture placed along the beamline directly after the turbopump. However,this geometry still allowed several cm’s of relatively high gas pressure. More recently, with help fromthe JILA machine shop and Tenio Popmintchev, the differential pumping scheme was improved byplacing a roughing pump roughly 2 cm past the end of the HHG waveguide. Roughing pumps are
actually more effective than turbopumps for the high-pressure gas loads found in this situation.
The aperture placed in the beamline is only 2 mm in diameter and is 2 cm long, providing a muchbetter pressure differential than in the past.
This new differential pumping scheme also allowed a longer phase-matching geometry thanpreviously. Previously, the gas pressure geometry was as shown in Fig. 4.3(a), with only a single
gas inlet and two pump-out holes. This type of geometry meant that there was no constantpressure region along the fiber axis, preventing true phase matching. However, this geometry wasnecessitated by the fact that the previous differential pumping scheme did not tolerate the larger
gas load necessary for allowing a constant-pressure region. The improvement to the differential
pumping scheme, which enabled higher gas loads while maintaining lower gas pressures beyond the97

Si HtheoryL
ZrO2 -coated Si HtheoryL
ZrO2 -coated Si HmeasuredL
ZrO2 -coated SiO2 HtheoryL

Reflectivityat 800 nm

0.25
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
0.00

6

8

10
12
14
16
GlancingAngleHdegreesL

18

20

Figure 4.2: Plot showing glancing-incidence reflectivities at 800 nm for a variety of “rejector”
mirror designs. The blue curve shows the theoretical reflectivity of bare Si, the green curve shows
the theoretical reflectivity of Si coated with 207 nm of ZrO2 , the black curve shows the theoreticalreflectivity of SiO2 coated with ZrO2 , and the red dots show experimental measurements of thereflectivity of Si coated with 207 nm of ZrO2 . The 800 nm light is assumed to be p-polarized.

98
exit of the waveguide, allowed for two pump inlets separated by 5 mm near the exit of the waveguide(see Fig. 4.3(b)). This geometry enabled true phase matching along 5 mm length, limited by theabsorption length of helium at 13 nm.
Finally, the laser was upgraded to operate with 2 mJ of pulse energy at a repetition rate of
2 kHz (and later 5 kHz) by replacing the pump laser in the amplifier, a step up from a previous
1.4 mJ at 3 kHz. Previously, due to the lower pulse energy, it was necessary to use waveguides
with 100 µm inner diameter in order to achieve high enough intensity for helium ionization [212].
The increase to 2 mJ allowed the use of 150 µm inner diameter waveguides, resulting in harmonic
yield that was less sensitive to any laser drift. Additionally, the larger diameter means that the
waveguide is easier to align.
The cumulative effect of all of these improvements was to increase the 13 nm high harmonic
flux to > 108 photons/s at the sample, a 100× improvement over the previous best shown by ourgroup [212]. However, there is still some room for improvement over the current design. As canbe seen in Fig. 4.3(b), there is still 5 mm from the second gas inlet to the exit of the waveguide,across which the phase-matched harmonic beam can be partially absorbed. The length of this “endsection” could be reduced through the use of new fiber-mounting designs. A simple estimate for the
improvement in transmission of the phase-matched beam through the end section can be calculatedusing the Beer-Lambert law. The Beer-Lambert law for varying gas density isZT (λ) = exp −σ(λ) N (z) dz ,(4.1)

where T (λ) is the transmission of the gas at wavelength λ, σ(λ) is the absorption cross-section of
the gas at λ, and N (z) is the gas density as a function of position. Pressure can be traded fordensity if we assume an ideal gas, allowing us to rewrite Eq. (4.1)


σ(λ)
T (λ) = exp −
kB T

Z


P (z) dz ,(4.2)

where kB is Boltzmann’s constant, T is the gas temperature, and P (z) is the gas pressure. If weassume a pressure ramp in the waveguide end section like that shown in Fig. 4.3(b), we can rewrite

99

Figure 4.3: Old and new 13 nm waveguide gas pressure schemes. The outward-pointing arrows
represent vacuum pump outlets and the inward-pointing arrows represent gas inlets. (a) The previous waveguide design included a vacuum pump outlet 5 mm from the entrance of the waveguide,a gas inlet 1 cm from the exit of the waveguide, and a pump outlet 5 mm from the exit of the
waveguide. This geometry resulted in the approximate pressure profile shown above the depictionof the waveguide. (b) The new waveguide design allows for a constant pressure region 5 mm longnear the exit of the waveguide, allowing for better phase matching. Additionally, the pump outlet
was moved closer to the constant pressure region to prevent extra absorption of the driving laser.
Again, the pressure profile shown above the waveguide is approximate.

100
Eq. (4.2) as


 
Z
σ(λ) z0z
T (λ) = exp −P0 1 −dz ,kB T 0z0(4.3)

where P0 is the pressure at the beginning of the ramp and z0 is the length of the end section. The
integral in Eq. (4.3) is easy to evaluate, resulting in a final expression for the transmission:

σ(λ)P0 z0T (λ) = exp −
2kB T


,

(4.4)

Based on data found at CXRO’s website [40], helium’s absorption cross-section is 8.2×10−19 m2 /atom
at 13 nm. The transmission curves shown in Fig. 4.4 were calculated assuming room temperature atpeak ramp pressures ranging from 200 − 800 torr, which are in the vicinity of typical experimental
phase-matching pressures. As can be seen from the figure, the current 5 mm end sections leaveroom for another factor of 2 − 10× improvement.

4.1.2

Data collection and image reconstruction

Fig. 4.5 shows a schematic of the tabletop HHG source and microscope used in this work. As
described in Ch. 2, light from an ultrafast Ti:sapphire laser-amplifier system (KMLabs DragonTM ,2 mJ pulse energy, 780 nm wavelength, 2 kHz repetition rate, 25 fs pulse duration) is focused into a
5 cm long, 150 m diameter, helium-filled hollow waveguide to generate fully coherent high-harmonic
beams around 13 nm [209]. The 100× increase in high harmonic flux at 13 nm was critical to ourexperiments, in order to significantly enhance high-angle diffraction with much reduced exposure
times. The increase in flux brought the total photon flux at the sample within a factor of 10 ofthat for a typical 29 nm HHG source [92]. Previous CDI results at 29 nm required exposure timesof minutes to hours in order to capture high-angle diffraction data [211], meaning that without thisflux improvement high-resolution imaging at 13 nm would have remained out of reach with realistic
exposure times.
The waveguide geometry allows a long interaction length to establish excellent laser and
HHG modes that can be fully phase matched and fully spatially coherent [92, 118, 209]. Moreover,at 13 nm wavelength, the nonlinear medium (helium) is strongly absorbing, and the gas pressures101

1
200 torr
500 torr
800 torr

Transmission

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0

2

4

6

8

10

End section length (mm)Figure 4.4: Transmission of 13 nm light through a pressure ramp of helium, based on Eq. (4.4).
Transmission curves are shown for peak ramp pressures of 200 torr (blue), 500 torr (green) and800 torr (red) as a function of waveguide end section length. Typical waveguides used for 13 nm
HHG have 5 mm end sections, meaning that based on this calculation there is some room for
improvement.

102
required for phase matching are very high (≈ 1 atm). Unless the high harmonic beam emerges into
vacuum over a sharp gas density gradient, as discussed in the preceding section, the losses due tophase mismatch and gas absorption in the end sections can be significant.
To reject the laser light that co-propagates with the high harmonic beam, we use a combination of a Brewster-angle silicon substrate coated with 207 nm of ZrO2 (described in the previous
section) [213, 214] combined with two 200 nm thick Zr filters. The Brewster mirror absorbs nearly
all of the infrared light and reflects ≈ 60% of the HHG beam, while the filters each have a calculatedtransmission of 50% at 13 nm. The broadband EUV light is then spectrally filtered and refocused
onto the sample using a pair of 73% efficient multilayer reflectors centered at 12.8 nm (one flatand one 1 m ROC), resulting in a flux of > 108 photons/s at the sample. After illuminating thesample, the scattered light is collected in the far field using a back-illuminated, x-ray sensitive
CCD detector with 13.5 µm square pixels on a 2048 × 2048 array (AndorTM iKon DO436). In thefar field, the diffraction pattern is related to the exit wave of the object by a Fourier transform.
Using the Hybrid Input-Output (HIO) phase retrieval algorithm [39], it is possible to recover thephase information and consequently an image of the object.
Two different test objects were used to test the spatial resolution of our tabletop XCDI
microscope, shown in SEM images in Figs. 4.6(a) and 4.7(a) (referenced hereafter as J407 andJ409). Raw diffraction data are shown in Figs. 4.6(b) and 4.7(b), while reconstructions are shownin Figs. 4.6(c) and 4.7(c). Before reconstructing the image, the raw data must be preprocessed
to improve the convergence of the iterative algorithm. First, hot pixels inherent to the CCD chipare removed, and cosmic rays appearing in the final scatter pattern are identified and removed. In
some cases, filtering was performed in the Fourier space of the scatter pattern. Finally, the fulldiffraction pattern was binned by a factor of eight for sample J407 and sixteen for sample J409.
The binning process combines photon counts from adjacent pixels into a single pixel, increasing
signal to noise and decreasing the overall grid size for the calculation.
After the data was filtered, several well-established iterative phase retrieval algorithms were
implemented to reconstruct the amplitude and phase of the images, including the difference map

103

Figure 4.5: A femtosecond driving laser is focused into a helium-filled hollow-core waveguide,
producing high harmonics near 13 nm wavelength. A “rejector” mirror removes most of the fundamental laser light while reflecting the majority of the harmonic light. Thin Zr filters are used toremove the rest of the fundamental light while transmitting the HHG light. Finally, a pair of EUV
multilayer mirrors select a single harmonic and focus the beam onto a test pattern. The diffracted
light is measured on a CCD detector placed only cm’s past the sample. The inset shows an image
retrieved using an iterative phase retrieval algorithm. Figure reproduced from Seaberg et al. [185].

104

Figure 4.6: (a) SEM image of sample J409. (b) Recorded diffraction pattern using 13 nm light.
(c) CDI reconstruction of the test pattern shown in (a). (d) Lineout across the dashed line in (c),demonstrating record 22 nm resolution. Figure adapted from Seaberg et al. [185].

105

Figure 4.7: (a) SEM image of sample J407. (b) Diffraction pattern produced by sample J407. (c)CDI reconstruction of the test pattern shown in (a). (d) Lineout across the dashed line in (c),demonstrating that 50 nm features in the test pattern are easily resolved. Figure adapted from
Seaberg et al. [185].

106[215], HIO [39] and RAAR [204]. All of these algorithms converged to the same final object amplitudes. For the results shown in Figs. 4.6 and 4.7, we used the HIO algorithm, replacing thediffraction amplitude with experimental data after each iteration to serve as the Fourier-domain
constraint, and a shrinking support [205] as the object-space constraint. The details of the fulliterative algorithm are as follows: the HIO algorithm was allowed to converge, after which 1000
final iterations were averaged together to form one independent reconstruction. Thirty such fully
independent reconstructions were averaged together to form the solution. Because independent
solutions to the phase retrieval are equivalent except for the center positions of the image, independent reconstructions must first be registered with one another using sub-pixel cross-correlation
followed by interpolation [216].

4.1.3

Analysis

The data for object J407 (Fig. 4.7 were obtained with the CCD placed 3.6 cm past theobject, corresponding to a NA ≈ 0.36. This allows for a maximum half-pitch resolution using
coherent illumination of ∆rhp = 0.5 λ/NA ≈ 18 nm, calculated using the Rayleigh criterion for
coherent illumination. The lineout shown in Fig. 4.7(d) was taken along the profile marked inFig. 4.7(c) by a white, dashed line. The 1/e2 diameter of this nano-fabricated feature is ≈ 50
nm, which provides an upper limit for our imaging resolution. Object J409 (Fig. 4.6) was placed
4.6 cm from the CCD, corresponding to a NA ≈ 0.28. Using NA = 0.28 the half-pitch resolution
would be ∆rhp ≈ 23 nm. However, Fig. 4.6(b) clearly shows a strong signal to noise ratio out tothe corner of the CCD; this increases the NA to 0.4, giving an angle-dependent Rayleigh criterion
resolution between 17 nm and 23 nm. The Rayleigh criterion states the maximum resolution of
an imaging system, ∆rhp , as the ability to resolve two points spaced by 2 × ∆rhp . In our case,however, the sample simply does not contain features this small; the smallest feature is ≈ 50 nm. A
conventional alternative to the Rayleigh criterion is to test the distance over which an edge makes
a transition from dark to light by measuring the distance between 10% and 90% of the maximum
sample intensity. This method is known as the knife-edge test, and the results of such a test are107
shown in Fig 4.6(d). Both edges in Fig. 4.6(d) transition from dark to light in a distance ≈ 22 nm,
in excellent agreement with the resolution expected based on the NA used to generate this image.
We note that the half-pitch resolution calculated using the Rayleigh criterion is usually directly
associated with the distance measured using the knife-edge test. However, we point out that therelationship between resolutions measured using the knife-edge test and the Rayleigh criterion is
actually closer to ∆rKE ≈ 85%∆rRC , yielding a resolution of 23 nm. This is in excellent agreementwith our data.
After reconstructing the object from its scatter pattern, the pixel area was decreased by afactor of 16 in the images plotted in Figs. 4.6(b) and 4.7(b), in order to accurately ascertain the 10%
and 90% points of the intensity across an edge. The pixel size was modified via Fourier transform,zero-padding interpolation. Even though the pixel sizes in Fig. 4.6(b) and 4.7(b) were significantly
decreased, no information was added because both objects were originally sampled at a frequency
greater than the Nyquist frequency.
While the knife-edge test is convenient and provides an accurate resolution measure of anedge transition, a somewhat more powerful tool is the phase retrieval transfer function (PRTF),
defined as
PRTF(f ) =X

φ(f ).

(4.5)

f =const

The diffraction phases φ(f ) are averaged over constant frequency contours to produce the PRTF,
which takes a value of 1 where the iterative algorithm produced perfect convergence consistently,
and a value near 0 where the algorithm continually failed to converge. Before using Eq. (4.5) as ameasure of the reconstructed image resolution, we constructed a Weiner filter [217] of the form
W (f ) =|S(f )|2,|S(f )|2 + |N (f )|2(4.6)

where S(f ) is the power spectral density of the measured diffraction pattern and N (f ) is a measureof the noise trend, taken to be a constant 0 < N < 1 for our filter. We implemented the Weiner
filter to produce an improved measure of image quality as wPRTF(f ) = W (f )PRTF(f ), which isshown in Fig. 4.8.

108

Figure 4.8: Filtered phase retrieval transfer function. Features in the wPRTF provide measuresof the smallest sample features and the image resolution of reconstructed images. For example,
the wPRTF for sample J407 shows a “knee” structure around 50nm half-period resolution, whichcorresponds to the feature size of the slots of ≈ 50 nm. The cutoff wPRTF values are between 19
and 22 nm, in excellent agreement with the knife-edge measurements shown in Fig. 4.6. Figure
reproduced from Seaberg et al. [185].

109
Two critical features in the wPRTF can be used to express different types of image resolution.
The wPRTF displays a “knee”-type structure where the slope increases rapidly in the negative
direction. The point where the slope changes is interpreted as the minimum feature size in thesample. This is evident for sample J407, where the minimum sample feature size from the SEM
image and our retrievals is ≈ 50 nm, in excellent agreement with the position of the “knee” inthe wPRTF. The second feature is the cutoff value of the wPRTF, which can be interpreted
as the maximum resolution achieved in the reconstruction. The cutoff value for sample J407
displays a maximum resolution of ≈ 19 nm, while the cutoff value for sample J409 indicates a
maximum resolution of ≈ 22 nm, in excellent agreement with the knife-edge measurement and NAof the imaging system. The variation in brightness over the reconstructed images is explained bydiffraction through the thick, absorbing objects. The depth of the nano-patterned holes in the Au
test patterns was approximately 400 nm, which is deeper than the depth of field of our imaging
system. A comparison with simulation is presented in the following section. Larger-scale variationin brightness may be due to non-uniform illumination, as the sample was placed at the 13 nm beamfocus; the diameter of the beam was on the order of the sample size.
While independent reconstructions may only take ≈ 1 minute on a standard personal computer, the limiting factor for near real-time imaging using tabletop high harmonic EUV sources isthe limited amount of available photon flux. By increasing the EUV flux at the sample to a valueof > 108 photons/s, sample J409 was reconstructed using significantly shorter exposure times bytaking advantage of on-chip binning (performed by the Andor camera) to a grid size of 256 × 256
pixels to increase the signal to noise ratio of the recorded pattern. The result is displayed in Fig. 4.9.
The knife-edge test demonstrates a spatial resolution of ≈ 25 nm in an image acquisition time of
only 30 seconds.
Since in our initial experiments the diffraction patterns (Figs. 4.6(b) and 4.7(b)) clearlyextended beyond the edges of the CCD chip, we shortened the sample-to-CCD distance to justover 10 mm, corresponding to a NA = 0.79. It is well known from diffraction tomography thatwhen collecting a pattern at such large angles, the 2-D pattern can actually be mapped onto

110

Figure 4.9: Sub-30 nm resolution from a 30 second exposure. Increases in HHG flux enabled bybetter differential pumping have led to a dramatic decrease in required exposure times. This has
enabled 25 nm spatial resolution in an image with only 30 second exposure time. Figure reproduced
from Seaberg et al. [185].

111
a spherical shell of radius 1/λ in the 3-D Fourier transform space, termed the Ewald sphere.
It is important to note that for a thick sample (relative to the 2-D projection of the object inthe direction of illumination) in combination with diffraction collection at a high NA, there ismodulation in the pattern due to the depth information encoded in the 3-D pattern. In this case,the curvature correction described in previous work [218] does not recover the intensity of the 2-D
Fourier transform of the object. To accurately recover the object to the resolution corresponding to
the NA, a 3-D reconstruction technique - such as ankylography or tomography - must be employed.
In the 0.79-NA geometry, the diffraction pattern was above the noise level out to an angle
corresponding to ≈ 0.6 NA. This data was mapped onto the Ewald sphere as described in Raines etal. [196] and the result is shown in Fig. 4.10(a). In this case the spherical shell is positioned in a 3-D
cube, and the points in the cube where data is absent must be retrieved in addition to the phase at
the known intensity points. The 0.6 NA imaging allows a best possible resolution ∆rhp of 10 nm
in the x and y dimensions and 32 nm in the z dimension. An isosurface rendering of the resulting
3-D reconstruction is shown in Fig. 4.10(b). Since the walls of the sample are very absorbing at
13 nm, not all photons initially scattered reach the detector. Thus, this particular sample is not
ideal for 3-D image reconstruction. Nevertheless, we are able to see that the sample was tilted by≈ 10 degrees with respect to the detector (Fig. 4.10(c)) and also extract the relative size difference
between features in the sample. This is interesting because the sample was fabricated on a 50100 nm thick silicon nitride membrane. Thus, the scanning electron microscope images shown in
Figs. 4.6(a) and 4.7(a) can only be taken from the front side, where the different etch depths are
not apparent. In the future, the robustness of this high-NA 3-D imaging may be improved byilluminating an object with a broad bandwidth (e.g. several adjacent harmonics), thus filling in asignificantly larger portion of the cube, using an extension of the technique demonstrated in Chenet al. [81].

112

Figure 4.10: Demonstration of ankylography with a high-NA diffraction pattern. (a) Diffraction
pattern mapped onto the surface of the Ewald sphere accompanied by a projection onto the plane.
(b) Isosurface rendering of the 3-D ankylographic reconstruction. (c) Same as in (b) showing tiltof sample with respect to the detector. (d) Same as in (b) showing the relative size difference
between features in the sample with emphasis in the z-direction, accompanied by a projection onto
the plane. Figure reproduced from Seaberg et al. [185].

113
4.1.4

Simulation of diffraction from a thick, absorbing object

Close inspection of the image reconstructions presented in Figs. 4.6 and 4.7 reveals ripples
in the intensity of the transmissive regions of the objects. These ripples can be explained bydiffraction through a thick, absorbing object. The CDI experiment was simulated via multislice“spectrum-of-plane-waves” propagation through a 400 nm thick pattern etched in gold.
The pattern used for the simulation was an idealized version of the SEM image shown in
Fig. 4.6(a). In the simulation, the transverse pixel size was 6.5 nm and the step size between
propagation slices was 6.5 nm, in order to properly sample the wave. The complex index ofrefraction, n, of most materials at EUV and X-ray wavelengths is typically very close to 1, so that
it is typically written asn = (1 − δ) − iβ.

(4.7)

For gold at 13 nm, δ = 0.091 and β = 0.040 [40]. The incident beam was assumed to be a plane
wave with unit amplitude.
The magnitude of the simulated field at the exit of the 400 nm thick object, or “exit surfacewave” (ESW), is shown in Fig. 4.11(a). This image can be compared directly to the image reconstructions shown in Figs. 4.6(c) and 4.9(a). Note that even the number and locations of the fringes
in the simulation are consistent with those found in the image reconstructions. Next, the far-field
diffraction pattern was simulated by taking the Fourier transform of the simulated ESW, with theresulting pattern shown in Fig. 4.11(b). For comparison, Fig. 4.11(c) shows the Fourier transformof a single slice of the simulated test pattern, representing an infininitesimally thin object. Finally, diffraction data collected at 0.79 NA is shown in Fig. 4.11(d), after curvature correction wasapplied [218].
As can be seen from Fig. 4.11(b)-(d), both the simulated diffraction where finite thickness was
accounted for and the measured diffraction data do not exhibit centrosymmetry. In contrast, thesimulated diffraction from an infinitesimally thin object (single slice) does exhibit centrosymmetry,
and is qualitatively very different from the patterns shown in Fig. 4.11(b) and (d). The results of this114

Figure 4.11: (a) Simulated exit surface wave (ESW) resulting from multi-slice propagation througha 400 nm thick gold sample. (b) Simulated far-field diffraction pattern of the thick object, obtainedby calculating the Fourier transform of the ESW in (a). (c) Fourier transform of a single-slice
object, simulating the diffraction pattern due to a very thin object. (d) Measured diffraction datafrom test pattern J409, collected at NA > 0.6.

115
simulation indicate that while we were able to attain very high (22 nm) resolution in this experiment,
images produced by CDI are not necessarily true representations of thick, absorbing objects. Thisis because, as opposed to a surface imaging technique such as SEM, the CDI reconstruction isaffected by diffraction of light through the object along the direction of propagation. This problem
can be partially remedied by moving to a 3-D reconstruction technique, such as ankylography or
tomography. However, in the case of a strongly absorbing object, absorption and multiple scattering
can occur which lead to artifacts in the reconstruction.

4.2

Tabletop keyhole CDI
After demonstrating the ability to achieve very high 22 nm resolution with 13 nm wavelength,

our efforts shifted towards extending the capability of our tabletop CDI microscope to image more
complex objects. Initially, this meant moving away from simple “pinhole-like” samples. The difficulty in this step forward lies in the need for an object-plane support as one of the constraints
in conventional CDI. For objects that are not “pinhole-like,” the support can be much less welldefined. This is especially true if the sample is too large for the oversampling criterion to be met.
Fortunately, a number of generalizations to CDI have been developed that either allow this constraint to be modified in a number of ways. These generalizations include keyhole CDI, apertured
illumination CDI, and ptychography CDI, all of which are discussed in detail in Ch. 3. The firstsuccessful imaging results of more complex, transparent samples using HHG CDI are presented
below, in which keyhole CDI was used for implementation [182]. These first results were obtainedusing 29 illumination, due to less experimental difficulty at this wavelength.

4.2.1

Extended objects

Our first step towards imaging more complicated objects involved using an extended test
pattern, meaning it was too large to illuminate all at once. The utility of keyhole CDI comesfrom the ability to use the extent of the illumination as the “support” rather than the extent
of the object. Small modifications to the experimental setup were necessary in order to use the116
illumination as the support. As described in Abbey et al. [201], the goal was to provide a sharply
defined, diverging wavefront as the illumination to the sample. The two main modifications made toachieve this goal included replacemend of the 50 cm focal length multilayer mirror used previouslywith a 12.5 cm focal length mirror, and placement of a pinhole in the beam on its way to the focus.
These modifications are depicted in Fig. 4.12.
The laser system used in this experiment was the same as that described in Section 4.1.2,
configured to run at 3 kHz repetition rate with 1 mJ pulse energy. The laser was focused into a
150 µm ID waveguide filled with argon gas at a pressure near 60 torr, in order to phase-matchhigh harmonics near 29 nm. Two 200 nm thick Al filters were placed between the waveguideand the imaging chamber, in order to block the residual driving laser light. Inside the chamber,the harmonics were reflected off two Mg/SiC multilayer mirrors with peak reflectivity at 43.2 eV(28.7 nm) and full width half maximum (FWHM) reflectivity bandwidth of 2.1 eV. The first mirror
was flat while the second had a 25 cm radius of curvature (ROC); these mirrors served to select
only the 27th harmonic and refocus the beam. A 50 µm diameter pinhole was placed in the beam
≈ 2 mm before the focus, in order to place a sharp edge on the beam. The X-ray CCD (Andor
iKon) was placed 44.6 mm beyond the focus, so that the numerical aperture of the system wasapproximately 0.3.
Due to the inability to achieve normal incidence on the curved mirror due to geometricalconstraints, some astigmatism was introduced into the EUV beam. The vertical and horizontal
focus positions were determined by scanning the pinhole across the beam at multiple locations
along the beam axis. The separation between foci was determined to be 0.55 mm, with 50 µm
precision. The test pattern used in this experiment was fabricated using e-beam lithography, andconsisted of etched features in a 100 nm thick gold layer deposited on a thin silicon nitride membrane(shown in Fig. 4.13). The test pattern was first placed 1.3 mm downstream of the circle of least
confusion (COLC, the midpoint between the two foci), so that the beam diameter on the sample
was approximately 25 µm. The sample was translated so that region I depicted in Fig. 4.13 wasilluminated, producing the diffraction pattern shown in Fig. 4.14(a), which was recorded in a 30

117

Figure 4.12: Schematic of initial experimental geometry for tabletop keyhole CDI. The 50 cm focal
length curved mirror used previously was replaced with a 12.5 cm focal length mirror. Additionally,a pinhole was placed in the beam on its way to the focus, in order to place a sharp edge on
the otherwise Gaussian beam. The sample was placed downstream of the focus so that it was
illuminated with a diverging wavefront, and, as before, the CCD was placed near the object inorder to collect high angle diffraction. Figure adapted from Zhang et al. [182].

118
minute exposure. Second, the sample was positioned 0.9 mm past the COLC, so that the beam
diameter was approximately 18 µm, and translated so that region II depicted in Fig. 4.13 wasilluminated. The resulting diffraction pattern, recorded in another 30 minute exposure, is shownin Fig. 4.14(c).
For this test pattern, only the etched regions of the gold were transparent, whereas the rest of
the object was completely opaque to the 29 nm illumination. This meant that all of the light at thedetector could be considered to be scattered light; none of the unscattered, incident beam reached
the detector unperturbed. Thus, in this case the central region of the diffraction pattern can’t beconsidered to be a “holographic” region as described in the first description of the technique [201].
However, as discussed in Ch. 3, the diffraction pattern is similar (up to a magnification factor) tothat which would be recorded in the near field with plane wave illumination. This fact is evident in
the asymmetry of the diffraction patterns in Figs. 4.14(a) and (c), particularly near the centers of
the patterns. This asymmetry aids in the image reconstruction through the fact that the solution
to the phase of the diffraction pattern is unique [219].
Phase retrieval of the diffraction patterns shown in Figs. 4.14(a) and (c) was achieved using the RAAR algorithm [204], in combination with shrinkwrap support [205] and non-negativity
object-domain constraints. Use of the non-negativity constraint was made possible by dividing out
the phase curvature of the incident beam. The exit surface wave (ESW), ψo , can be considered tobe the productψo (~r 0 ) = ψi (~r 0 )t(~r 0 ),(4.8)

where ψi is the incident illumination, t is the complex transmission of the object, and ~r 0 represents
the sample plane coordinates. The incident illumination ψi can be decomposed into its amplitude
and phase, as0ψi (~r 0 ) = ψi (~r 0 ) eiφi (~r ) ,(4.9)

where the phase of the incident wave, φi , is defined as−1

φi = tanIm(ψi )
Re(ψi )

.

(4.10)

119

Figure 4.13: Extended test pattern used to demonstrate tabletop keyhole CDI. The regions highlighted by red ovals were both imaged independently, with reconstructions shown in Fig. 4.14.
Figure adapted from Zhang et al. [182].

120
If the incident illumination is approximated as a simple astigmatic Gaussian beam, the phase φican be written as
π
φi =
λ



x2
y2
+
R(zc + za ) R(zc − za ),

(4.11)

where R(z) is the radius of curvature of a Gaussian beam a distance z from its focus, zc is the
distance to the COLC, and za is half the distance between horizontal and vertical foci. R(z) isdefined asR(z) = z 1 + z 2 Rz,(4.12)

where zR is the Rayleigh range. For this experimental geometry zR was ≈ 250 µm, based on afocusing NA ≈ 0.01. This Rayleigh range was long enough relative to the sample-to-focus distancesthat it had to be taken into account.
In general, we are interested in reconstructing t in Eqn. 4.8. Here what was actually reconstructed, since the phase of the incident beam was divided out, was |ψi (~r 0 )| t(~r 0 ). Thus, nonuniformities in the incident beam were coupled with information about the object. The object
reconstructions resulting from illumination of regions I and II are shown in Figs. 4.14(b) and (d),respectively. Note that there is evidence of non-uniform illumination, due to the fact that in keyhole
CDI, the field-of-view (FOV) is defined by the entire incident beam rather than the object. Ptychography methods can be used to remove these non-uniformities, since the object and “probe” arereconstructed independently [85, 86]. However, there is a tradeoff in that ptychographic phase retrieval requires the collection of many diffraction patterns for a single image reconstruction, whereas
keyhole CDI only requires a single diffraction pattern.
The resolution of this first successful demonstration of keyhole CDI using a tabletop HHG
source was approximately 100 nm half-pitch, much lower than that achieved in the previous section.
However, the main importance of this result lies in its implications of what will be possible in the
future. The fact that nearly the entire HHG beam can be used as the object support for keyhole CDI
imaging is further proof of the full spatial coherence of high harmonic generation. Additionally,
the fact that the harmonic beam was stable enough over the course of 30 minutes to provide

121

Figure 4.14: (a) Measured diffraction pattern when illuminating the test pattern shown in Fig. 4.13
at region I. (b) Keyhole CDI reconstruction of region I. (c) Measured diffraction pattern whenilluminating the test pattern at region II. (d) Keyhole CDI reconstruction of region II. Figure
adapted from Zhang et al. [182].

122
steady illumination across the entire FOV is extremely important for future time-resolved imaging
experiments that, in order to obtain quantitative dynamic information, will require the assumptionthat the illumination doesn’t change during the course of the experiment.

4.2.2

Transparent objects

Another challenge not previously addressed successfully using HHG CDI is the imaging ofobjects that are mostly semi-transparent, with relatively weak contrast. This is an extremely important type of sample from a scientific point of view, in that this is type of sample is representative of
biological cells. Also, this type of sample is analogous to technologically interesting surfaces which
could be imaged in a reflection geometry.
Part of the difficulty in imaging this type of sample is that the scattering efficiency is typicallylower due to lower absorption contrast. Thus, any stray light incident on the detector may bebrighter than the diffraction from the sample. For instance, there is incoherent atomic line emission(ALE) of HHG gas media [220] at photon energies that fit inside the transmission bandwidths oftypical metal filters used to separate the high harmonics from the fundamental laser light. In
particular, there are many emission lines from singly ionized argon (Ar II) between 40 and 80 nm
wavelength [221,222] which fit inside the transmission bandwidth of aluminum. Neutral helium has
several emission lines near 50 nm [222], which fit inside the transmission bandwidth of zirconium
filters.
Because this atomic emission is incoherent, it radiates to 4π, which means that compared
to laser-like high harmonic beams with typical divergence ≈ 1 mrad, its radiant intensity (power
per unit solid angle) relative to the harmonic beam should be relatively small. Empirical datashows that the radiant intensity of HHG is only 10-20 times higher than that for ALE for a 300 µm
phase-matching length, so that in a 5 cm waveguide it can be assumed that, in a best case scenario,
HHG has spectral radiance ≈ 103 times higher than that of ALE [223]. When compared to sample
diffraction, which may be several orders of magnitude less bright than the unscattered harmonic
beam, incoherent ALE may be a problem. For this reason, it is extremely important to only allow

123
light inside the divergence cone represented by the high harmonic beam to reach the detector. Thiscan be accomplished in as simple a manner as placing an aperture in the beam path that has
diameter at least as small as the HHG beam at that position, similar to the pinhole described in
Section 4.2.1.
Unfortunately, the simple solution of placing a pinhole in the beam path, which seems to
fix the problem of incoherent background light, introduces a new problem. Because the pinhole
diameter is chosen to be on the order of the HHG beam diameter, there is appreciable diffraction
due to the pinhole, as can be seen in Fig. 4.15(a). First attempts to image overall transparent
objects made it clear that the scattering from the pinhole was a problem. This is due to the factthat for objects with low constrast, the scattered light from the pinhole obscured scattered lightfrom the sample. Furthermore, in the sample plane this scattered light covered a much larger
area than could be oversampled based on the distance between the sample and detector planes. A
realistic simulation of the experimental geometry, using the Fresnel diffraction formula for beam
propagation, confirmed that the pinhole is causing this diffraction. The simulated beam profile atthe detector is shown in Fig. 4.15(b).
The idea of the order sorting aperture (OSA) used to remove unwanted orders when focusingwith a zone plate condenser was borrowed as an idea to remove the unwanted pinhole diffraction. A
second pinhole was inserted into the simulation, placed closer to the focus and with diameter larger
than that of the direct beam. The resulting simulated beam profile at the detector is shown in
Fig. 4.15(c). As can be seen from the figure, this second pinhole acts as a spatial filter, removing theunwanted scattered light and providing a very clean illumination. When this idea was implemented
in the experimental geometry, the resulting beam profile (shown in Fig. 4.15(d)) agreed very wellwith the predicted profile from the simulation. The close agreement between experiment andsimulation (with no fitted parameters) is further evidence of the excellent Gaussian beam quality
and full spatial coherence of the high harmonic source [31, 92, 210].
Now that we were able to produce a clean, finite beam such as that shown in Fig. 4.15(d), wewere ready to image weakly scattering objects. A schematic of the experimental geometry for this124

Figure 4.15: Simulated and measured beam profiles at the detector. (a) Measured beam profileat the detector plane with a single pinhole, of diameter approximately that of the beam diameter,
placed in the beam path on the way to the focus. Note that there is a considerable amount of
scattered light due to the pinhole. This beam profile is representative of that used to obtain the
keyhole results shown in Fig. 4.14. (b) Simulated beam profile at the detector for the experimental
geometry used to produce the measured beam profile in (a). (c) Simulated beam profile when asecond pinhole is placed in the beam path, near the focus. The pinhole diameter is chosen to belarger than the size of the focus, so that it acts as a spatial filter. (d) Measured beam profile after
implementing the pinhole “spatial filter.” The beam profiles shown in (a)-(d) are thresholded at
1% of peak intensity.

125
demonstration is shown in Fig. 4.16. The first pinhole, used to produce a more sharply-defined, finite
beam, was placed 16 mm upstream of the COLC and was 200 µm in diameter. The second pinhole,with 50 µm diameter, was placed 1.4 mm upstream of the COLC. As described above, this pinhole
was large enough to allow the direct beam to pass, and had the sole function of removing lightscattered by the first pinhole. Prior to placing the sample in the beam path, the illumination wascharacterized as described in Quiney et al. [224], with the small modification that the astigmatism
was taken into account. Similarly to the keyhole reconstruction described in the previous section,
the wavefront curvature (based on measurements of the horizontal and vertical focus positions) was
divided out in the plane of the first pinhole, so that a non-negativity constraint could be appliedin this plane. At each iteration, the curvature was added back in after the constraint was applied.
The result of this reconstruction is shown in Fig. 4.17, where the sagittal and tangential meridionalslices are plotted near the COLC.
In this case, the sample consisted of a 30 nm-thick layer of chromium deposited on a 45 nmthick silicon nitride membrane. Features were etched in this two layer system using a focused ion
beam, shown in Fig. 4.18(a). The sample was placed at the COLC, where the beam diameter wasapproximately 8 µm. The amplitude and phase of the illumination at the COLC are shown in
Figs. 4.17(c) and (d), respectively. The resulting diffraction pattern, as measured on the detector
5.71 cm away, is shown in Fig. 4.18(b) scaled to the 1/4 power. The inset of Fig. 4.18 shows the
direct, unscattered beam. As can be seen from the figure, the light scattered by the object is asmall perturbation to the unscattered beam. The fact that there is a large amount of unscattered
light means that the pattern can be treated as an in-line hologram, with the unscattered beamtreated as the reference wave. This can easily be seen in the plane of the sample by examinationof the exit surface wave (ESW), ψT , which can be written as
ψT = ψ0 (~r 0 )t(~r 0 ),(4.13)

where ψ0 is the incident beam, t is the complex transmission of the object, and ~r 0 represents thecoordinates in the sample plane. In order to separate the object and reference waves, t can be

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Figure 4.16: Schematic of revised keyhole CDI experimental geometry. The only change fromthe geometry shown in Fig. 4.12 is the addition of a second pinhole near the focus. The pinhole
diameter is chosen to be larger than the size of the beam, so that it simply functions to remove
the majority of the scattered light from the first pinhole. The inset shows the sample used todemonstrate keyhole CDI with a semi-transparent object. Figure adapted from Zhang et al. [182].

127

Figure 4.17: (a) Sagittal and (b) tangential meridional slices of the reconstructed illumination
surrounding the circle of least confusion. (c) Amplitude of the reconstructed illumination at thecircle of least confusion. The scale bar has width 5 µm. (d) Phase of the illumination at the circleof least confusion, shown at the same scale as in (c).

128
written as∆t(~r 0 )t(~r ) = t0 1 +,t0
0(4.14)

where t0 is the “background” transmission of the object and ∆t is the modification to the object
transmission at the “featured” regions. Both t0 and ∆t are in general complex, but for convenience
the phase of t0 can be set to 0. Combining Eqns. (4.13) and (4.14), we can identify the reference
wave, ψr , asψr = ψ0 (~r 0 )t0(4.15)

ψo = ψ0 (~r 0 )∆t(~r 0 ).

(4.16)and the object wave, ψo , asNote that full knowledge of the reference wave in relation to the object wave requires knowledge oft0 . Fortunately, t0 can be measured by comparing the amplitudes of the unscattered beam with andwithout the Cr/Si3 N4 layer pair placed in the beam path. The reference wave can be used both tocalculate an initial low-resolution image of the object and also to improve the convergence of a CDI
reconstruction [225]. The major difference between this approach and that used in traditional CDI
involves the way in which the modulus constraint, which enforces consistency with the measured
diffraction pattern, is applied. Here, the modulus constraint was applied in the following way:
First, the current guess for the object wave was propagated to the detector plane. Second, thereference wave (calculated at the detector plane) was added coherently to the object wave, after
which the modulus constraint was enforced. Third, the reference wave was subtracted and the
new guess for the object wave was propagated back to the sample plane. Fourth, the phase of theincident wave, ψ0 , was subtracted from the object wave so that a non-negativity constraint could
be applied. Fifth, the phase of the incident wave was added back in, to give the new guess for theobject wave which is fed into the next iteration.
Image reconstructions were retrieved using ≈100 iterations of the RAAR phase retrieval algorithm [204], followed by 10 iterations of the error reduction algorithm [39]. The reconstructed amplitude and phase of the “features” of the object, ∆t defined in Eq. (4.14), are shown in Figs. 4.18(c)129
and (d), respectively. Quantitative depth information can be obtained by adding together ∆t with
t0 in order to obtain the full transmission function, t, of the object. The phase information contained
in t can be combined with knowledge of the material composition of the object (and corresponding
indices of refraction) in order to calculate the etch depth as a function of ~r 0 . Because this sample
is composed of two layers of different materials, it is also necessary to know the thickness of the
top layer. With the index of refraction written as n = 1 − δ + iβ, the etch depth, d, can be related
to the phase of t, φt , asd(φt ) = − λφt2πδCr

for 0 ≤ φt ≤ 2π
λ δCr hCr ,(4.17) − λφt − hCr (δSi − δCr ) for φt > 2π δCr hCr ,
2πδSi
δSi
λ
where hC r is the thickness of the Cr layer, δCr and δSi are known values for δ at 29 nm for the Cr
and Si3 N4 layers, respectively [40], and the depth d is negative where material has been removed.
Because the Cr layer was evaporated onto the Si3 N4 membrane, its density was actually only 91%
of the bulk value, as determined by X-ray reflectivity measurements, so that δCr was 91% of thetabulated value. The thickness of the Cr layer, hCr was known to be 30 nm based on the fabrication
process. A depth map based on the image reconstruction as well as the above known quantities isshown in Fig. 4.19(b), which can be compared with a depth map obtained from an atomic force
microscope (AFM, Digital Instruments Dimension 3100) shown in Fig. 4.19(a).
The depth map results are compared quantitatively along a lineout (dashed line in Fig. 4.19(b)),
shown in Fig. 4.19(c), showing very good agreement within error bars (the uncertainty calculation
is described in Zhang et al. [182]). Further agreement is found when comparing the depth of thesmallest feature in the sample, a 50 nm diameter circle. The etch depth of this circle was foundto be 28(9) nm using CDI and 20(5) nm using AFM. The depth maps are also displayed in a 3D
perspective in Figs. 4.19(d) and (e) based on AFM and CDI measurements, respectively.

4.3

Conclusions
The results presented in Section 4.1 using 13 nm, along with previous work from our groupat 29 nm [211], demonstrate that CDI using HHG allows for near-wavelength-limited resolution.

130

Figure 4.18: (a) Test pattern fabricated using focused ion beam. The scale bar has width 1 µm.
(b) Diffraction pattern obtained using the test pattern shown in (a), scaled to the 1/4 power. The
inset shows the unscattered beam. (c),(d) Reconstructed amplitude (c) and phase (d) of the test
pattern, with the unscattered reference beam subtracted as discussed in the text. The scale bar in(a) is shared with (c) and (d). Figure adapted from Zhang et al. [182].

131

Figure 4.19: (a),(b) Depth profiles from (a) AFM and (b) CDI. The colorbar to the right of (b) is
shared with (a). (c) Lineout along the dashed white line shown in (b), showing good quantitative
agreement between AFM and CDI. (d),(e) 3D profiles of the test pattern based on (d) AFM and (e)CDI measurements. The chromium and silicon nitride layers are shown in different colors. Figure
adapted from Zhang et al. [182].

132
While the initial demonstrations of tabletop keyhole CDI, presented in Section 4.2, were at lower
resolution, they represent the capability to image more complex samples than was previously possible. The keyhole technique has more demanding requirements on source stability and coherence, so
the successful results presented are further evidence of the laser-like properties of the high harmonicsource. In the future, the keyhole technique will allow for time resolved imaging of real, complex
nano-systems for the study of topics such as spin and energy transport at the nanoscale.

Chapter 5

Coherent Diffractive Imaging in a Reflection Geometry

Up to this point, the potential for harnessing the power of CDI for imaging complex nanostructured surfaces, which requires the use of a reflection geometry for imaging, has been largely
ignored. Surfaces are critical in nanoscience and nanotechnology, for example in catalysis, energy harvesting systems or nanoelectronics. A few successful demonstrations have applied CDI
to reflection-mode imaging. However, work to date has either been limited to highly reflective
EUV lithography masks in a normal incidence geometry [226], restricted to low numerical aperture
through the use of a transmissive mask [227], or restricted to isolated objects [228, 229].

5.1

First attempts at tabletop reflection mode imaging
Our first experiment towards reflection mode imaging involved keeping the experimental

geometry as simple as possible. This meant placing a sample at 45◦ angle of incidence near the focusof the EUV beam, with the detector placed immediately after the sample as before. A schematic
diagram of the experimental geometry is shown in Fig. 5.1. Similar to what is described in previous
chapters, the high harmonic source was generated using a Ti:sapphire amplifier system (KMLabs
DragonTM , 3 kHz repetition rate, 2 mJ pulse energy, 25 fs pulse duration, centered at 785 nm). The
laser was coupled into the EH11 mode of a 5 cm-long, 150 µm-ID hollow-core waveguide filled with≈ 60 torr of argon, producing several high harmonics near 29 nm. After blocking the fundamental
laser light with two 200 nm-thick Al filters, two Mg/SiC multilayer mirrors select the 27th harmonicat 29 nm and focus the EUV beam onto the sample. The sample used for this experiment was a

134

Figure 5.1: Schematic for initial reflection mode experiments. The 29 nm EUV beam was focused
onto the sample using two multilayer mirrors, with 45◦ angle of incidence on the sample. The
detector was placed directly after the sample, so that the detector plane was oriented normal to
the specular reflection. Figure adapted from Gardner et al. [193].

periodic array of identical nickel nano-pillars patterned on a sapphire substrate. The nano-pillars
were each 2 µm square and 20 nm tall. The detector was placed 4.5 cm away from the sample,
oriented so that its surface was normal to the specular reflection of the beam.
As usual, the diffraction pattern is proportional to the Fourier transform of the scatterer in thefar field. However, the non-zero angle of incidence on the two-dimensional grating sample distorts
the scatter pattern (see Fig. 5.2(a)). Fortunately, these distortions can be taken into account using
a coordinate transformation termed tilted plane correction (described in Ch. 3), which corrects the
distortion to yield a pattern proportional to the actual Fourier transform of the nano-patterned
array. The corrected pattern is shown in Fig. 5.2(b). In this case, the corrected scatter pattern isthe product of a sampling comb whose spacing is set by the period of the nano-pillar spacing withthe average of the Fourier transform of all of the illuminated pillars.
The intensity value at each peak in the corrected diffraction pattern was sampled and placed
onto a new, coarser, grid, producing an oversampled diffraction pattern that represents the Fourier
amplitude of the averaged pillars, shown in Fig. 5.2(c). In this case, the oversampling ratio is≈4, set by the inverse of the duty cycle of the pillars. Notice that the bright central peaks of thediffraction patterns shown in Fig. 5.2 were blocked in order to collect high angle scattering within
the dynamic range of the CCD. During the iterative phase retrieval process, the algorithm was

135

Figure 5.2: (a) Raw diffraction pattern, with noticeable conical diffraction. (b) Pattern after tilted
plane correction, with the data sampled on a grid linear in spatial frequency. (c) Downsampled
pattern obtained by sampling the peaks of the pattern in (b). (d) Reconstructed average pillar,
based on the downsampled pattern in (c). (e) AFM image representative of the Ni nanopillars thatwere used as the sample. Figure adapted from Gardner et al. [193].

136
allowed to solve for both the amplitude and the phase of this region of the pattern. After the phaseof the diffraction pattern was retrieved, an averaged image of the pillars with ≈100 nm resolution
was formed by taking the inverse Fourier transform of the complex diffracted amplitudes, shown in
Fig. 5.2(d).
While this was only a first step towards general reflection-mode imaging, it was neverthelessimportant. This data represented an experimental validation of the tilted plane correction interpolation method [193]. Additionally, this experiment laid the foundation for further work towards
local imaging of non-periodic surfaces. Rather than resampling the diffraction peaks onto a coarser
grid, the full, corrected pattern can be processed using an iterative phase retrieval algorithm inorder to retrieve a quantitative phase-contrast image of the surface, with spatial resolution andphase sensitivity limited only by the wavelength of the illumination and the collected NA.

5.1.1

Reflection keyhole data

The next step towards reflection mode imaging involved moving toward a keyhole geometry
similar to that described in Ch. 4. The geometry only differed from that shown in Fig. 4.16 inthat the sample was again placed at 45◦ angle of incidence, and the detector was oriented with its
surface normal to the specular reflection. As described in Section 4.2.2, two pinholes were used toremove any background light as well as to place a sharper edge on the beam. The sample used forthis experiment again consisted of an array of nano-pillars, this time 1 µm in diameter, 30 nm tall,and cylindrical instead of square.
Raw diffraction data from this sample is shown in Fig. 5.3(a). Using tilted plane correction,
the pattern was interpolated onto a grid linear in spatial frequency, shown in Fig. 5.3(b). However,attempts to retrieve the phase of this data were unsuccessful. This was likely due to the fact thatthe multilayer mirrors used for the experiment had a broader reflectivity bandwidth than expected.
As can be seen in the diffraction shown in Fig. 5.3, 3 harmonics are clearly visible at each diffraction
order. This is especially apparent at high diffraction angles.
Additionally, the need for accurate knowledge of the incident illumination in keyhole CDI [201]137

Figure 5.3: (a) Raw diffraction pattern from 1 µm diameter cylindrical nano-pillars, using “keyhole”
illumination as described in the previous chapter. (b) Pattern from (a) after tilted plane correction.
Note that due to broad mirror bandwidth, 3 separate harmonics are apparent in the diffraction
pattern.

138
presents significant difficulties in reflection mode. Furthermore, it is difficult to apply phase (nonnegativity) constraints in the sample plane in reflection, which is an important component of many
phase retrieval algorithms [73, 77]. This difficulty comes from the fact that for short wavelengths,
even few-nanometer surface height variation within the illuminated field of view can produce large
phase differences in reflection. Imperfect knowledge of the incident beam only exacerbates thisissue.
Fortunately, a phase retrieval technique known as ptychography, which has the capability toreconstruct both the diffracting object as well as the incident illumination, has seen rapid progressover the past several years [85,86]. The technique is described in detail in Ch. 3. In addition to thecapability to retrieve the incident beam, there is no need for a phase constraint in the sample plane,making this technique ideal for overcoming the difficulties associated with reflection CDI. This extra
information comes at a price; many diffraction patterns must be collected as the illumination isscanned across the sample in an overlapping grid pattern. The algorithm also requires precise
knowledge of the relative distances between scan positions, meaning that high resolution, closedloop stages must be used for sample positioning. New algorithms able to solve for the scan positions
relax this requirement slightly [230, 231]. The successful application of ptychography to reflection
CDI is described in the following section.

5.2

Ptychography in reflection mode
Here we demonstrate the most general reflection-mode coherent diffractive imaging to dateusing any light source, by combining the extended ptychographical iterative engine (ePIE) [86] withcurved wavefront illumination [232]. This allows extended (non-isolated) objects to be imaged at
any angle, which will enable tomographic imaging of surfaces. This work also represents the first
non-isolated-object, high fidelity, tabletop coherent reflection imaging, which expands the scopeof applications for CDI significantly to a very broad range of science and technology. First, ourapproach removes restrictions on the numerical aperture, sample, or angle, so that general extended
objects can be imaged in reflection mode at any angle of incidence. Second, illumination of the

139
sample with a strongly curved wavefront removes the need for a zero-order beam-stop by reducing
the dynamic range of the diffraction patterns. The curved illumination also allows the size ofthe beam to vary according to the sample size, alleviating the need for a large number of scan
positions. This also results in fewer necessary scan positions when imaging a large field of view.
Third, reflection ptychography produces surface images containing quantitative amplitude andphase information about the sample that are in excellent agreement with atomic force microscopy(AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images, and also removes all negative effects
of non-uniform illumination of the sample or imperfect knowledge of the sample position as itis scanned [231]. The result is a general and extensible imaging technique that can provide acomprehensive and definitive characterization of how light at any wavelength scatters from an
object, with resolution limited only by the wavelength and the numerical aperture of the system.
This complete amplitude and phase characterization thus is fully capable of pushing full field opticalimaging to its fundamental limit. Finally, because we use a tabletop high harmonic generation(HHG) 30 nm source [31], in the future it will be possible to image energy, charge and spin transportwith nm spatial and fs temporal resolution on nanostructured surfaces or buried interfaces, which
is a grand challenge in nanoscience and nanotechnology [233, 234].

5.2.1

Experimental geometry

The experimental geometry for reflection mode Fresnel ptychography is shown in Fig. 5.4. A
Ti:sapphire laser beam with wavelength ≈785 nm (1.5 mJ pulse energy, 22 fs pulse duration, 5 kHz
repetition rate) is coupled into a 5 cm-long, 200 µm inner diameter, hollow waveguide filled with60 torr of argon. Bright harmonics of the fundamental laser are produced near a center wavelengthof 29.5 nm (27th harmonic) since the high harmonic generation process is well phase-matched [92],ensuring strong coherent signal growth and high spatial coherence. The residual fundamental laser
light, which is collinear with the high harmonic beam, is filtered out using a combination of two
silicon mirrors (placed near Brewsters angle for 785 nm light) and two 200 nm-thick aluminum
filters. A pair of Mg/SiC multilayer mirrors then select the 27th harmonic of the Ti:sapphire laser

140
at 29.5 nm. The first mirror is flat, while the second mirror has a radius of curvature of 10 cm.
This mirror pair focuses the HHG beam onto the sample at an angle of incidence of 45◦ . The focus
position is 300 µm downstream of the sample, so that the HHG beam wavefront at the sample
plane has significant curvature. The angle of incidence on the curved mirror is approximately 2◦ ,which introduces small amounts of astigmatism and coma onto the HHG beam.
An adjustable ≈1 mm aperture is placed in the beam path ≈1 m upstream of the sample, toremove any stray light outside the beam radius. Here, only one aperture was used, in contrast to
the two apertures that were necessary for the experiment described in Section 4.2.1. This simpler
geometry is made possible by the fact that with such a large distance between the aperture and thespherical multilayer mirror, the majority of the scattered light from the aperture diffracts outside
the diameter of the mirror. In this case, the finite mirror diameter serves the same purpose as thesecond aperture described in Section 4.2.1.

5.2.2

Sample fabrication

The sample used in the experiment was fabricated on a super-polished silicon wafer. The
wafer was rinsed with acetone, isopropanol, and methanol, and baked on a hotplate for 20 minutes
at 250◦ C. It was then spin-coated with Microchem 2% PMMA in anisole, molecular weight 950
at 4000 r.p.m. for 45 seconds. Afterwards it was baked at 180◦ C for 90 seconds. Electron beamlithography was performed using a FEI Nova NanoSEM 640, using Nanometer Pattern Generation
System (NPGS) software and patterns. The resist was then developed by immersion in a 1:3
solution of methyl-isobutyl-ketone:isopropanol for 30 seconds. Approximately 30 nm of titanium
was evaporated onto the surface using a CVC SC3000 3-boat thermal evaporator. The lift-off step
was accomplished in acetone using a sonicator. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) image ofresulting object is shown in Fig. 5.5(b).

141

Figure 5.4: Experimental setup for reflection mode Fresnel ptychography. The EUV beam propagates through an adjustable ≈1 mm aperture; a single harmonic is selected using a pair of multilayer
mirrors centered at 29.5 nm and focused onto the sample. The scattered light is collected on a CCD
detector placed directly after the sample. The inset shows a height profile reconstructed throughptychography.

142

Figure 5.5: Diffraction data and ptychographic reconstruction. (a) Representative diffraction pattern, scaled to the 1/4 power, taken from the 90-scan dataset. (b) SEM image of the Ti patterned
Si sample. Note that the large defect circled in the SEM image resulted from contamination after
the ptychography measurement. (c) Reconstructed amplitude (thresholded at 5%) of the HHG
beam. The inset shows the reconstructed phase (displayed modulo-2π). (d) Ptychographic reconstruction of the object shown in (b). The reconstruction is plotted as the complex amplitude, wherebrightness represents reflected amplitude and hue represents the phase of the reconstruction. Notethat the majority of defects seen in the SEM image of the Ti nanostructures are reproduced in theptychographic reconstruction. The scale bar in (b) is shared among (b)-(d).

143
5.2.3

Results and Discussion

The scattered light from the object is measured using an EUV-sensitive CCD detector (Andor
iKon, 2048×2048, 13.5 µm square pixels), placed 67 mm from the object, and oriented so that thedetector surface was normal to the specular reflection of the beam. The sample was positioned
300 µm before the circle of least confusion along the beam axis, so that the beam diameter incident
on the sample was approximately 10 µm. Diffraction patterns were measured at each position of 10
adjacent 3 × 3 grids, with 2.5 µm step size between positions. The positions were randomized by up
to 1 µm in order to prevent periodic artifacts from occurring in the ptychographic reconstruction[89].
Due to the non-normal angle-of-incidence on the sample, the patterns must be remapped ontoa grid that is linear in spatial frequencies of the sample plane, in order to use fast Fourier transforms(FFTs) in the data analysis. We used tilted plane correction to accomplish this [193]. An example
of a corrected diffraction pattern is shown in Fig. 5.5(a). The diffraction patterns were cropped
such that the effective numerical aperture was 0.1, enabling a half-pitch resolution of 150 nm.
The image was reconstructed using the ePIE, along with the sub-pixel position determination
method [208, 231]. The full process for obtaining the reconstruction shown in Fig. 5.5(d) was asfollows:(1) Tilted plane correction was applied to each of the 90 diffraction patterns in the full dataset.
(2) The standard ePIE algorithm [86] was applied to the corrected data, with subpixel scan
position precision handled as in Maiden et al. [208]. A starting guess for the probe wascalculated using knowledge of the sample-to-focus distance (300 µm). The object starting
guess was set to unity and the probe guess was normalized to contain the same energy as
the average diffraction pattern in the dataset. The algorithm was allowed to update theprobe guess in parallel with the object guess at each sub-iteration. The algorithm was
run in this way for 20 full ptychographic iterations, at which point the probe guess had
made much more progress towards convergence than the object guess. The object guess

144
was reinitialized to unity, and the algorithm was restarted using the new probe guess, andallowed to run for 100 iterations, long enough for both the object and probe to converge tostable solutions.
(3) The object guess was re-initialized as described in step 2, and the probe guess was set tothat found at the end of step 2. The subpixel position correction method [231] was applied
to the ePIE, and the overlap constraint was applied with subpixel shifts of the probe [208].
The position correction feedback parameter β was started at a value of 50, and automatedas in Zhang et al. [231]. The probe guess was not allowed to update during this step. Again,
the algorithm was run for 100 iterations, until the position corrections converged to < 0.1
pixel.
(4) Finally, using the probe found in step 2 and the corrected scan positions found in step 3,
and with the object guess reinitialized to unity, the algorithm was run for 200 iterations toachieve the final reconstruction.
Each full iteration (cycling through all 90 diffraction patterns) took approximately 30 seconds
on a personal computer, leading to a total reconstruction time of 3.5 hours.
As mentioned above, the algorithm was used to further solve for the complex amplitude of
the probe as well, resulting in the illumination shown in Fig. 5.5(c). As discussed in Section 5.2.4,
the reconstructed probe is completely consistent with a measurement of the unscattered beam at
the detector. The high fidelity of the CDI reconstruction is evident by the fact that the majority ofsmall defects visible in the SEM image of the Ti patterns (Fig. 5.5(b)) are also clearly visible in the
CDI reconstruction (Fig. 5.5(d)). Note that the large defect circled in the SEM image in Fig. 5.5(b)was the result of sample contamination after the ptychography measurement. Section 5.2.5 contains
a more detailed comparison between the defects seen in the CDI reconstruction, and those seen in
the SEM and AFM images (Fig. 5.9).
Ptychography solves for the complex amplitudes of both the object and the probe (or incidentbeam) simultaneously [86, 89]. As a result, reliable quantitative information about the object can

145
be obtained from the reconstruction, since the effect of the probe on the diffraction patterns isessentially divided out. Quantitative surface relief information can be obtained from the phaseof the reconstructed object as well. The titanium was patterned at a thickness of approximately
30 nm. The round trip path difference of the reflected light is −2h cos θ, where h is the height abovea reference (such as the substrate) and θ is the angle of incidence. At 45◦ angle of incidence for afeature thickness of 30 nm, the round trip path length difference between the silicon substrate andthe patterned titanium features is 42.4 nm. At 29.5 nm wavelength, this corresponds to between
1 and 2 wavelengths path length difference. Additionally, the phase change upon reflection can behighly variable for absorbing materials. In the case of this sample, both silicon and titanium havenative oxide layers which must be taken into account when calculating this phase change. Thus,
some prior knowledge is required in order to retrieve the absolute height of the features. The method
for calculating the phase change upon reflection from a thin-film system with complex indices ofrefraction is described in Born and Wolf [200]. The indices of refraction at 29.5 nm wavelength
necessary for this calculation were obtained from the Center for X-Ray Optics (CXRO) [40].
The thickness of the oxide layer on the Si wafer used for sample fabrication was determinedthrough ellipsometry (Gaertner Scientific L117F300). The measurements were made at 70◦ angle
of incidence using a He-Ne laser at 632.8 nm. The ellipsometric angles ψ and ∆ were determined
to be 10.20(4)◦ and 171.00(7)◦ , respectively. The angles are defined asrp= tan ψ e−i∆
rs

(5.1)

where rp and rs are the complex reflectivity coefficients for p- and s-polarized light, respectively.
The thickness of the oxide layer was calculated by numerically solving the argument of Eq. (5.1),
assuming an index of refraction for the oxide layer of 1.474(3) and an index of refraction for thesilicon substrate of 3.89(2) + i 0.011(9) at 632.8 nm wavelength. The result was an oxide layer
thickness of 3.0(1) nm.
The thickness of the titanium oxide layer was assumed to be 2.9(2) nm based on the literature[235, 236]. For the SiO2 /Si region, the phase change δSi was calculated to be −1.22(3) radians and146the theoretical reflectivity was calculated to be 0.33%. For the TiO2 /Ti patterns, the phase change
δTi was calculated to be −1.92(9) radians and the theoretical reflectivity was calculated to be 10.9%.
The object reconstruction shows a ratio of ≈17 between the reflectivity of the titanium and thesilicon surfaces based on a histogram of the reconstructed amplitude, in reasonably good agreementwith the calculated values, which assumed no surface roughness.
A flattening method was applied to the reconstructed phase of the silicon substrate, similar
to that used in atomic force microscopy, due to some residual phase curvature reconstructed on theflat substrate. The peak-to-valley height variation of the subtracted surface fit was < 4 nm over thefull 35 × 40µm2 field of view. After flattening, the reconstruction shows an average of 4.26 radiansof phase difference between the titanium and silicon surfaces, corresponding to a 46.2(7) nm path
length difference (when 2π is added and after taking the phase changes upon reflection into account).
This corresponds to a 32.7(5) nm average thickness of the titanium patterns. A height map of
the sample could then be produced by assuming that 2π should be added to any part of thereconstruction that exhibited an amplitude above 25% of the maximum (based on the relativereflectivities of titanium and silicon, as discussed above). Additionally, the reflection phases δSi andδTi were subtracted from the Si and Ti regions using the same criteria. The result of this analysis isdisplayed in Fig. 5.6(a), and represents a significant improvement in image quality compared withall tabletop coherent reflective imaging to date. After the ptychography measurements were taken,
an independent height map of the sample was obtained using a Digital Instruments Dimension 3100
AFM. The resulting AFM height map is shown in Fig. 5.6(b), after applying the same flattening
method as that used for the CDI reconstruction. The AFM measurement shows an average height
for the titanium features of 32.7 nm, which agrees exactly with the ptychography result withinerror bars.
Many small pieces of debris are visible in the AFM image shown in Fig. 5.6(b), with heights
above that of the patterned titanium. None of the EUV work was done in a cleanroom environment.
The reason these are not visible in the CDI height map (Fig. 5.6(a)) is that the 3D information
relies on the phase difference of light reflecting from the substrate versus the features (at 45◦ )147

Figure 5.6: Height profile comparison between CDI and AFM. (a) 3D profile of the object based on
ptychographic reconstruction. (b) 3D profile of the object based on an AFM measurement. Any
features taller than 40 nm were thresholded to 40 nm for the 3D rendering. (c) Histograms of theheight profiles shown in (a) and (b). The histograms were used to calculate the average feature
thickness of 32.7 nm based on the both the CDI and AFM measurements. The scale axis shown in(a) is shared by both (a) and (b). Note that the large debris spot on the right of the AFM image
was introduced after the CDI image was taken.

148
and not on the absolute height difference. While the debris locations are still evident in the CDI
reconstruction (Fig. 5.5(d)), the modulo 2π ambiguity of the phase information combined with thevery short wavelength prevents us from extracting the absolute height information of all features.
However, a tomographic or multi-wavelength approach would enable full 3D reconstructions of allfeatures on a surface [91].
Finally, we note that previously it was believed that full knowledge of the probe was necessary
when using Fresnel (curved wavefront) ptychography for phase retrieval [232]. However, we find thatfor ptychographic grids of 3 × 3 and larger with sufficient overlap between adjacent probe positions(60-70% area overlap [86]), the algorithm converges to a consistent result for the probe provided
that the phase curvature of the starting guess differs by no more than 50% of the actual phasecurvature. Even this condition is relaxed entirely in the case of isolated objects. To demonstrate
this, we performed a separate ptychographic retrieval of the probe by scanning a 5 µm diameter
pinhole across the beam near the focus. The probe that is retrieved using this method can bepropagated to the sample plane for comparison to the probe found in the course of the sample
reconstruction. We found very good agreement between the two probe reconstructions, independentof the accuracy of the starting guess for the probe. More details of this comparison can be foundin Section 5.2.4.

5.2.4

High Harmonic Beam Characterization Through Ptychography

To ensure that our recovery algorithm as discussed in the main text was correctly retrieving the probe illumination, we first characterized the extreme ultraviolet (EUV), high harmonic
generation (HHG) beam by scanning a 5 µm diameter pinhole across the beam near its focus andreconstructed the illumination using ptychography. In this case, the pinhole can be thought of as
the probe, while the beam is an effective object. The scan consisted of a 6 × 6 grid with 1 µm step
size between adjacent scan positions. The reconstructed beam is shown in Fig. 5.7(a).
The reconstructed beam was propagated to the sample position (200 µm upstream of thepinhole probe location) and calculated on the tilted plane (at 45◦ ) using tilted plane correction,

149

Figure 5.7: A comparison of separate reconstructions of the HHG illumination beam, using thebeam as the object in one case and as the probe in the second case. (a) Reconstruction of the HHG
beam near the focus using a 5 µm diameter pinhole probe. The main image displays the amplitude
and the inset displays the phase. The scale bar has width 2 µm. (b) The result of propagating
the reconstructed beam from (a) to the tilted sample plane. Again, the main image shows theamplitude and the inset shows the phase. The scale bar has width 5 µm. (c) The amplitude (mainimage) and phase (inset) of the reconstructed probe based on a 3 x 3 ptychographic scan acrossthe one of the features on the titanium sample discussed in the text. The scale bar is shared with(b). Note that the beam amplitudes in (b) and (c) are displayed in the tilted sample coordinates,
resulting in elongation in the horizontal direction.

150
shown in Fig. 5.7(b). Immediately after this ptychography scan, the pinhole probe was removed
and the sample was translated such that the beam illuminated one of the star patterns on thesample (with reconstruction shown in Fig. 5.5(d)). We performed a 3 × 3 ptychographic scan acrossthe star feature, with 2.5 µm step size. In this case, a probe starting guess consisting of a Gaussian
amplitude profile with random phase sufficed to consistently retrieve the probe amplitude shownin Fig. 5.7(c). As can be seen by comparison of Figs. 5.7(b) and (c), the two beam characterization
methods show very good agreement between both the phase and the amplitude. It should be notedthat the HHG beam drifted slightly inside the adjustable aperture during the course of the twoscans, resulting in slightly different beam structure during the two measurements.
As a further consistency check, the probe reconstruction discussed in the main text (shownin Fig. 5.5(c)) was propagated to the detector, and the tilted plane correction was undone in order
to examine the result in the real coordinates of the detector. The result of these steps is shownin Fig. 5.8(a). A comparison was made with a direct measurement of the unscattered beam bytranslating the sample to a featureless region of the silicon substrate, shown in Fig. 5.8(b). As canbe seen in Figs. 5.8(a) and (b), while it is evident that, as in the above sample plane comparison,some beam drift occurred during the course of the ptychographic scan, the reconstructed probe isentirely consistent with the high harmonic beam used to illuminate the sample.

5.2.5

Comparison between CDI reconstruction and SEM and AFM images

As mentioned in Section 5.2.3, there are a number of defects visible in the sample image
reconstructed through ptychographic coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) which are also visiblein scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM) images. A visualcomparison between the three techniques is shown in Fig. 5.9. Of the 7 defects pointed out in the
figure, only defects 1-5 are visible in all of the images. The 6th and 7th defects are only visible in
the CDI phase image and the AFM image. This is a demonstration of the fact that CDI has both
amplitude contrast (analogous to SEM) and phase/height contrast (analogous to AFM).

151

Figure 5.8: Comparison between the illumination reconstructed as a ptychographic probe andpropagated to the detector, and the unscattered illumination measured directly on the detector(raw data). (a) The probe reconstruction from Fig. 5.5, propagated to the detector plane. (b) The
HHG beam measured directly on the detector by translating the sample to a featureless region of
the silicon substrate. The scale bar in (a) has width 1 mm and is shared by (a) and (b).

152

Figure 5.9: A visual comparison between the reconstructed CDI amplitude and phase with images
obtained using SEM and AFM. (a) Reconstructed CDI amplitude image of the sample. (b) Phaseof the reconstructed image. (c) SEM image of the sample. (d) AFM image of the sample. In
the above images, seven1 defects have been pointed out (located above and to the right of eachnumber). Defects 1-5 are visible in all of the images, whereas defects 6 and 7 are only visible in
the reconstructed phase and in the AFM image. The circled defect in (c) and (d) was a result ofcontamination after the CDI measurements were taken.

153

5.3

Conclusions
We have demonstrated the first general, tabletop, full field reflection mode CDI microscope,capable of imaging extended nanosurfaces at arbitrary angles in a non-contact, non-destructive
manner. This technique is directly scalable to shorter wavelengths and higher spatial and temporal
resolution, as well as tomographic imaging of surfaces. By combining reflection-mode CDI with
HHG sources in the keV photon energy region, it will be possible to capture nanoscale surface
dynamics with femtosecond temporal and nanometer spatial resolution. Moreover, full characterization of the curved wavefront of the illuminating HHG beam at the sample plane throughptychography opens up the possibility for reflection keyhole CDI [182, 201]. This is significant for
dynamic studies, since in contrast to ptychography CDI which requires overlapping diffraction patterns, keyhole CDI needs only one diffraction pattern, and therefore requires no scanning of thesample.

Chapter 6

Future WorkOne of the main motivations for the work presented in this thesis is to enable scientificstudy at the intersection of the nanoscale and ultrafast. The CDI-based microscope presented inthis thesis is now ready to move in this direction. The HHG source described in Ch. 2 has thecapability for femto- to atto-second time resolution, which can be combined with the nanoscale
resolution of the microscope to study ultrafast processes in an imaging modality.
The high time resolution can be achieved most easily in one of two ways. In both cases
it is assumed that the dynamics are instigated with a femtosecond “pump” pulse, in order toachieve the highest time resolution. First, in cases where the process is predicted to be repeatable,
the diffraction measurement for each time delay between the pump and the probe can be madestroboscopically over the course of many laser shots. In the case where the process is not repeatable(either the sample relaxation time is too long, the process is random, or the sample is damaged
after only a few shots), the diffraction measurement for each time delay must be made during thecourse of a single shot. This second case requires a high number of HHG photons per laser shot,
but is not unprecedented [237–239]. This chapter will outline specific potential routes towards
dynamic imaging, in addition to a number of proposed experiments. The potential for applying
these techniques at higher photon energies will also be discussed.

155

6.1

Methods for dynamic imaging experiments
This section will describe two new approaches which will find application to dynamic imaging.

First, the keyhole CDI technique can be used generally. In cases where the process being studied is
not repeatable, diffraction patterns can be measured in a single shot for each time delay (enabled
by high-flux HHG sources). Second, a new hyperspectral extension to ptychography will enable
dynamic EUV imaging spectroscopy. However, this technique will require a full ptychographic
dataset at each time delay, meaning it can only be applied to repeatable processes in a stroboscopic
manner. The following descriptions of both techniques include experimental requirements andmethods as well as proof-of-principle demonstrations of each technique applied to EUV reflectionmode imaging.
As demonstrated in Ch. 5 and in other published experiments [61, 240–242], ptychography
has become an excellent method for characterization of a focused EUV or X-ray beam. Aside fromthe fact that this is the most comprehensive way to measure nano-focused illumination to date,
this is also extremely useful from an imaging point of view. The implication in ptychography isthat it is possible to divide out non-uniformities in the illumination from the object reconstruction,
resulting in images that more faithfully reproduce sample structure. In addition, full knowledgeof the illumination is necessary in order to use keyhole CDI-based techniques [201]. Thus, it ispossible to fully characterize the incident illumination using ptychography and subsequently usethat information to perform single-pattern keyhole reconstructions at each time delay of a dynamic
imaging experiment. This will be extremely useful, in particular for dynamic experiments which
require single-shot imaging.
While the keyhole algorithm is not as powerful as ptychography, progress towards implementation of this approach has already been made. A single diffraction pattern taken from theptychographic dataset described in Section 5.2 is displayed in Fig. 6.1(a). The reconstructed probeshown in Fig. 5.5(c) was used to reconstruct an image from this single diffraction pattern using
keyhole CDI. The result is shown in Fig. 6.1(b). The image fidelity is not as high as the full

156

Figure 6.1: Keyhole reconstruction using knowledge of probe based on a ptychographic reconstruction. (a) Single diffraction pattern taken from the ptychographic dataset described in Section 5.2,
after tilted plane correction. (b) Keyhole CDI reconstruction using the reconstructed probe shownin Fig. 5.5(c) combined with the diffraction pattern in (a).

ptychographic result shown in Fig. 5.5(d). This is likely due to low signal to noise ratio (SNR)
at high angles of the diffraction pattern measurement. Keyhole CDI is more sensitive to noise
than ptychography, due to the lack of redundant information as compared with ptychography. If
this approach is taken for a dynamic experiment, the SNR will need to be higher. Higher SNR
can be achieved by further optimization of the HHG flux, by longer integration times, or withimprovements to detector technology.
Another technique that will be very useful for dynamic imaging is a new extension to ptychography called ptychographical information multiplexing (PIM) [91]. This technique was developed
very recently at visible wavelengths and takes advantage of the vast amount of information in a
ptychographic dataset to reconstruct independent images at multiple wavelengths. While the fullpotential for this technique is still unknown, we can make some brief comments here. A reasonable
criterion for being able to distinguish a multi-wavelength diffraction pattern from a monochromatic
pattern is to require that the nth peak of one constituent wavelength should overlap with the(n + 1)th peak of the adjacent wavelength. This is related to the idea of the temporal coherence
length discussed in Section 3.2.2, except here we want to detect scattering at angles beyond that

157
allowed by the coherence length of the source. The required NA to meet this criterion is
NA >

λ1 λ2
,
D∆λ

(6.1)

where D now represents the probe diameter. In the case of HHG, we are likely interested in
distinguishing adjacent harmonics. It is interesting to note that in this case, the above requirement
can be written simply in terms of the wavelength of the driving laser, as
NA >

λ0
2D

(6.2)

where λ0 is the fundamental laser wavelength. This criterion is equivalent to requiring that theprobe diameter differs by at least one pixel (based on the image resolution) in object space. The
information multiplexing in ptychography can be understood to come from the fact that the overlap
constraint is wavelength-dependent. It is important to note that in order to take advantage of this,the full range of the ptychography scan must span the diameter of the probe. If this is not the case,
D in Eqs. (6.1) and (6.2) must be replaced with the scan range.
We have extended this approach to the EUV to image an object with four harmonics simultaneously. Thus far we have only achieved a proof-of-principle experiment, but the initial results
are very promising. We have replaced the EUV multilayer mirrors that were used for the previous
imaging experiments with a nickel-coated elliptical mirror at 5◦ glancing incidence. A schematicof the modified experimental geometry is shown in Fig. 6.2(a). The HHG spectrum used for theexperiment is shown in Fig. 6.2(b). It is important to note that the harmonics are actually very
narrow. The blurring between peaks in Fig. 6.2(b) is caused by low spectral resolution in the
diagnostic spectrometer. The sample that was imaged is the same as that used for the experimentdescribed in Section 5.2. The single-color ptychographic reconstruction is reproduced in Fig. 6.2(c).
Finally, the retrieved images for each harmonic are shown in Figs. 6.2(d)-(g); the corresponding
peaks are labeled accordingly in Fig. 6.2(b). Note that the best reconstructions were achieved forthe two brightest harmonics.
Both of these techniques will be very useful as the microscope is applied to dynamic imaging
experiments. There are many exciting experiments which can make use of this microscope to probe

158

Figure 6.2: First EUV hyperspectral images based on ptychographical information multiplexing(PIM). (a) Schematic for PIM with multiple harmonics. Four bright, phase-matched harmonics
are all refocused using a glancing incidence elliptical mirror. The sample is placed at the focus,
where the beam diameter is ≈ 10 µm. (b) Phase-matched harmonic spectrum. The harmonic peaks
are blurred due to low spectral resolution in the diagnostic spectrometer. In actuality the peaks
are much narrower and do not overlap. (c) Ptychographic reconstruction of the sample used forthis experiment, reproduced from Fig. 5.5(c). (d)-(g) Independent PIM reconstructions at eachharmonic shown in (b), where the harmonic peaks are labeled correspondingly.

159
short length and time scales simultaneously. To name a few, ideas for first experiments include
imaging ballistic heat transfer dynamics and surface acoustic waves [233,243], demagnetization dynamics and spin transport [1, 234], or imaging nano-plasmonic dynamics using the varying electron
density as a contrast mechanism [244, 245]. Of course, it will be very important moving forward toopen new collaborations with experts in a variety of dynamic nanosystems, who likely have more
concrete ideas concerning the most relevant scientific questions to address.

6.2

Imaging with keV harmonics
This microscope is also poised to move towards shorter wavelengths. Recently, phase-matched

HHG sources have been extended all the way to photon energies > 1 keV [31]. This has been madepossible through the use of longer wavelength driving lasers (up to 3.9 µm [184]), motivated by thesingle atom cutoff scaling with λ2 described by Eq. (2.13). Figure 6.3 depicts HHG spectra obtainedusing a variety of driving laser wavelengths. As the driving laser wavelength becomes longer, thespectrum becomes a supercontinuum. Pushing these long-wavelength lasers to kHz repetition rates
is the subject of current research. HHG sources capable of producing water window (300 − 500 eV)
photons at kHz repetition rates are very nearly ready to apply towards imaging.
The PIM technique discussed in the previous section combined with the very broad phasematched bandwidths produced with long-wavelength driving lasers represents potential for nanoscale
spectro-microscopy. This type of spectro-microscopy at keV photon energy may be several years
away as we wait for bright enough sources. However, water window spectro-microscopy may be avery useful tool for biological imaging applications.

6.3

Concluding remarks
This thesis describes the development of a general microscopy technique based on coherent

diffractive imaging with a high harmonic source. First, we demonstrated the high resolution potential for this microscope by obtaining 22 nm resolution with a 13 nm light source [185]. Second,
the microscope was generalized to image more complex, extended objects using the keyhole CDI

160

Figure 6.3: HHG spectra for a variety of driving laser wavelengths. Note that it is possible togenerate phase-matched harmonics above 1 keV using a 3.9 µm few-cycle driving laser. Figure
reproduced from [31].

161
technique [182]. Finally, general EUV reflection mode CDI was demonstrated, extending the utilityof the CDI technique to image a wide variety of surface systems [183]. There are many exciting
and interesting scientific directions that this microscope can be applied towards. HHG sources are
becoming more reliable and are being extended to higher and higher photon energies, and can only
be expected to improve further. The high spatio-temporal resolution of this versatile microscopy
tool is sure to enable the study of many interesting systems, with promise for probing new nanoscale
physics as a result.

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