On symmetric X-ray beam splitting with high efficiency by use of reflection gratings with rectangular profile in the extreme off-plane configuration

In order to be reflected or diffracted off a surface structure soft X-rays and hard X-rays need to impinge at grazing angles of incidence onto the surface. In case of a reflection grating of highly symmetric structure with rectangular groove profile these grooves can be oriented parallel to the beam trajectory. In such a symmetric situation the distribution of the diffracted intensity with respect to the plane of incidence is then expected to be symmetric. This is indeed observed with symmetrically oriented diffraction peaks. It can be predicted that for appropriate structure parameters the intensity can be contained mostly in two symmetrically oriented diffraction peaks. This will also be the case for hard X-rays. The diffraction efficiency will be particularly high, when the angle of grazing incidence is chosen in the total reflection regime below the critical angle of the grating coating. These predictions were experimentally verified in this work for hard X-rays with photon energies between 4 keV and 12.4 keV. In the experiment of the order of 30% of the incident intensity was diffracted into the two first orders. This is to be compared to reflectivities of the order of 50% measured at the same coating in an unruled area of the substrate. Consequently the relative structural diffraction efficiency for each first order was about 30%, while ideally it could have been 40%. The presented grating structure will thus be a rather efficient amplitude beam splitter for hard X-rays, e.g. in the coherent beam from a free electron laser. In addition such object could then be used as the first component in Michelson interferometers for the beam characterisation or for introducing a time delay between two coherent beams.