Generation of large area condenser zone plates with smallest zone width below 40 nm by electron beam lithography

The generation of electron beam generated condenser zone plates for high resolution X-ray microscopy is described. The smallest zone width is reduced to below 40 nm compared to interferomatically generated condensers with smallest zone width of 54 nm. This results in higher numerical aperture of the condenser zone and thus the imaging properties of the X-ray microscope near the resolution limit are improved. The suitability of the Lithography system LION LV1 for the generation of large area diffractive X-ray optics is demonstrated.