Ultrasmooth beryllium substrates for solar astronomy in extreme ultraviolet wavelengths

The paper describes a multistage method of forming ultrasmooth substrates based on bulk beryllium. Such substrates are suggested to be used for multilayer extreme ultraviolet mirrors of spacecraft missions on solar corona investigations in the spectral range 17.1-58.4 nm. The technique for chemical nickel plating of the sample surface is described. The process parameters that provide the formation of an amorphous film with a thickness of about 100 microns are presented. The results of mechanical polishing are shown. The effective roughness of 1.3 nm is obtained, which is twice lower than one achievable for a nickel-free beryllium surface. The applicability of the ion beam figuring technique is demonstrated: the initial surface roughness of a nickel film after etching with Ar ions (E_ion=200-800 eV) to a depth of 250 nm does not deteriorate. The amorphous silicon film deposition followed by ion polishing made it possible to reduce the microroughness (atomic force microscope frame 2×2 μm) to σ_2×2=0.15 nm from the initial σ_2×2=0.46 nm. The reflectivity of multilayer mirrors deposited on these substrates turned out to be close to the values obtained on "witnesses" (supersmooth silicon substrates). Moreover, for the Mg/MoSi2 mirror optimized for the wavelength λ=58.4 nm the values of the reflection coefficients of structures on the beryllium substrate and on the silicon "witness" were identical (about 28%).