Grazing-incidence efficiencies in the 28-42-angstrom wavelength region of replicas of the Skylab 3600-line/mm concave grating with multilayer and gold coatings

The efficiencies of replicas of the Skylab 3600-line/mm concave grating with multilayer and gold coatings were measured by using synchrotron radiation at an angle of incidence of 79 degrees and in the 28-42-Angstrom wavelength range. The blaze angle of the grating facets that faced the incident radiation was 3.1 degrees, and the average angle of the opposite facets was 6 degrees. For the gold grating, the -1 outside order had the highest efficiency of any diffracted order (excluding the zero order) over the entire wavelength range. Calculations of the grating efficiency indicated that the high efficiency in the -1 order resulted from the rather small angle (6 degrees) of the facets opposite the incident radiation. For the multilayer grating, the efficiency in the on-blaze +2 inside order was enhanced in the 30-34-Angstrom wavelength region as a result of the high reflectance of the multilayer coating. The maximum efficiency in the +2 order occurred at the wavelength (32 Angstrom) corresponding to the peak of the reflectance of the multilayer coating on the facets facing the incident radiation. These results further demonstrate that a multilayer coating can be used to enhance the efficiency, in a selected wavelength range and in the on-blaze order, of a grating operating at a small grazing angle (11 degrees). (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.