A nano-radian precision absolute local slope measurement method for X-ray reflectors

Opt Express. 2023 Jul 3;31(14):23642-23650. doi: 10.1364/OE.474177.

Abstract

Ultra-precise reflectors in the advanced light source facilities urgently call for local slope error measurements with nano-radian precision. However, the existing methods currently utilized in the long trace profiler systems struggle to meet the requirements. In this paper, we present a weak-value amplification enhanced absolute local slope measurement scheme, in which the surface height difference between two adjacent points can be measured directly with precision on the pico-meter level. As a result, the absolute local slope measurement reaches a record precision level of 9.7 nrad (RMS) with a small lateral separation of 0.5 mm. Comparing to the existing methods, our scheme is more disturbance-resistant, more compact and cost-effective. The local curvature measuring capability is also validated with two synchronously parallel local slope measurement paths, between which the separation is set as 2mm. A local curvature measurement is obtained with precision of 3.4 × 10-6m-1 (RMS) and its corresponding slope variation is 6.8 nrad. Our method exhibits important application prospects in the field of ultra-precise surface fabrication inspection.