Simulation of an X-ray Fresnel Zone Plate with Nonideal Factors

Fresnel zone plates have been widely used in many applications, such as x-ray telescopes, microfluorescence, and microimaging. To obtain an x-ray Fresnel zone plate, many fabrication methods, such as electron-beam etching, ion-beam etching and chemical etching, have been developed. Fresnel zone plates fabricated by these methods will inevitably lead to some nonideal factors, which have an impact on the focusing characteristics of the zone plate. In this paper, the influences of these nonideal factors on the focusing characteristics of the zone plate are studied systematically, by numerical simulations based on scalar diffraction theory. The influence of the thickness of a Fresnel zone plate on the absolute focusing efficiency is calculated for a given incident x-ray’s wavelength. The diffraction efficiency and size of the focal spot are calculated for different incline angles of the groove. The simulations of zone plates without struts, with regular struts, and with random struts are carried out, to study the effects of struts on the focusing characteristics of a zone plate. When a Fresnel zone plate is used to focus an ultrashort x-ray pulse, the effect of zone-plate structure on the final pulse duration is also discussed.