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.

A generalized reverse projection method has been established analytically for grating-based phase tomography with non-uniform reference. The method combines the advantages of the high efficiency of the reverse projection method and the universal applicability of the phase-stepping method.

The optical performance and suitability for EUV interference lithography of the soft X-ray beamline of the Australian Synchrotron is evaluated through comparisons of partially coherent simulation and experimental measurements.

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

A method is introduced for representation of arbitrary crystals, numerical calculation treatment and ray-tracing simulation, and upgrading the tools in the OASYS suit; the upgraded tools are particularly helpful for very complicated crystals constituting charged atoms arranged in any crystalline structure and including isotropic or anisotropic temperature factors. The new open source software tools developed here are available for supporting accurate calculations in the design and optimization of new X-ray monochromators.

Grating configurations for compressing free-electron-laser pulses are discussed.

A new concept for temporal gating of synchrotron X-ray pulses based on laser-induced thermal transient gratings is presented.

The properties of stacking multiple Fresnel zone plates together at intermediate distances are considered. One can enhance the nanofocusing efficiency, and other characteristics, by careful choice of design parameters.

The new monochromator beamline at FLASH, the free-electron laser of Hamburg, is designed to work in the soft X-ray range, covering a spectral range from 1 to 20 nm and with a spectral resolution of approximately 2000. Wave-propagation simulations were performed to provide the design of this beamline further insights with respect to the optical quality required.

The SASE3 soft X-ray beamline at the European XFEL is equipped with a grating monochromator. The design and current performance of the monochromator are discussed.