Nanofabrication of 50 nm zone plates through e-beam lithography with local proximity effect correction for x-ray imaging

Zhu Jingyuan¹, Zhang Sichao¹, Xie Shanshan¹, Xu Chen¹, Zhang Lijuan², Tao Xulei², Ren Yuqi², Wang Yudan², Deng Biao², Tai Renzhong², Chen Yifang^{1, †}

Demonstration of the soft x-ray imaging by the fabricated 50 nm zone plates in this work. (a) and (b) The SEM photos for the Siemens star with 50–60 nm wide lines as the thinnest feature in the center. The height of the star is 900 nm. The star was used in this imaging as the object. (c) and (d) Soft x-ray imaging photos of the object in (a) and (b), taken at 1.3 keV by STXM system.