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

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.

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.

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

A state-of-the-art multilayer deposition system has been developed at Diamond Light Source; this instrument is engineered to produce single and multilayer coatings, accommodating mirrors up to 2000 mm in length through the utilization of eight rectangular cathodes.

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 3D X-ray standing wave (XSW) technique is a new method for characterization of the 3D atomic profiles of planar periodic nanostructures, like nanometre-sized gratings or pillar arrays. The laboratory 3D XSW analysis of TiN gratings with nanometre-sized pitches is demonstrated here.

A graphene absorber, which consists of a graphene square array on top of a dielectric square array backed by a two-dimensional multilayer grating, is designed and investigated.

Absorption integrals and scattering factors are derived from a rigorous solution of the vector Helmholtz equations based on the boundary integral equations and Monte Carlo method. Using explicit formulae (in quadratures) the author finds the absorption and scattering intensity of one- and bi-periodic gratings and mirrors, which may have random roughnesses.

A multilayer-based collimated plane-grating monochromator (cPGM) with efficiency one order of magnitude higher than the traditional cPGM is proposed for the tender X-ray range. The resolving power can also be increased with improved photon flux by using a large blaze angle and working at high diffraction order.