X-ray zone plate fabrication using a focused ion beam

An x-ray zone plate was fabricated using the novel approach of focused ion beam (FIB) milling. The FIB technique was developed in recent years, it has been successfully used for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) sample preparation, lithographic mask repair, and failure analysis of semiconductor devices. During FIB milling, material is removed by the physical sputtering action of ion bombardment. The sputter yield is high enough to remove a substantial amount of material, therefore FIB can perform a direct patterning with submicron accuracy. The authors succeeded in fabricating an x-ray phase zone plate using the Micrion 9500HT FIB station, which has a 50 kV Ga+ column. Circular Fresnel zones were milled in a 1.0-microm-thick TaSiN film deposited on a silicon wafer. The outermost zone width of the zone plate is 170 nm at a radius of 60 microm. An achieved aspect ratio was 6:1