A simple analytical equation is presented that predicts the diffraction efficiency for a blazed grating in good agreement with more rigorous calculations. As the reflectivity and the geometrical factors separate, this allows the grating performance to be optimized, starting rather generally without considering explicitly the blaze angle.

A new design for a high-efficiency multilayer-coated blazed X-ray grating with horizontal-shifted (non-conformal) boundary profiles is proposed. This work shows that the diffraction efficiency of the blazed gratings with shifted boundary profiles is substantially higher than the efficiency of gratings with conformal boundaries, which are, moreover, much more difficult to produce.

It is shown that the operation of second-order diffraction in blazed gratings with smaller groove densities for the soft X-ray range can be used for scanning to higher photon energies, which might otherwise not be available or may require the use of a higher-density grating.

Establishing a facility for the production of gratings for synchrotron and free-electron laser applications is reported.

MLgrating, a MATLAB program for simulating multilayer grating efficiencies, is presented.

The diffraction properties of phase gratings fabricated on an Si(111) crystal were studied by triple-axis X-ray diffraction. It is shown that the presence of a grating as a phase-shift W layer on the crystal surface causes the formation of a complicated two-dimensional diffraction pattern.

The nonlinear continuum equation of thin-film growth is applicable to simulate the surface of multilayer gratings with large boundary profile heights and/or gradient jumps. The integrated approach to the calculation of boundary profiles and the intensity of short-wave scattering by multilayer gratings is a way of performing studies comparable in accuracy to measurements with synchrotron radiation for known materials and growth techniques.

The damage threshold of diffraction gratings and X-ray coatings have been studied using X-ray FEL radiation.

A new optics beamline and a versatile 11-axes UHV-reflectometer for at-wavelength characterization of real life-sized UV- and XUV-reflection gratings and other (nano-) optical elements has been set up and is in operation at BESSY-II. Azimuthal rotation of samples allows for reflectometry and polarimetry measurements in s- and p-polarization.

The optical design of a soft X-ray spectrometer that utilizes Wolter mirrors to enable imaging-mode spectroscopy with a beam-size independent spatial resolution in, for example, tandem catalysts in reaction is presented. When such a spectrometer is used in pump–probe experiments to study the transient electron dynamics, the imaging capability of the Wolter mirrors can offer femtosecond time delay between the pump and probe beams with non-collinear wavefronts.