We present an experimental study of the effect of layer interfaces on the x-ray reflectance in Cr/B4C multilayer interference coatings with layer thicknesses ranging from 0.7 nm to 5.4 nm. The multilayers were deposited by magnetron sputtering and by ion beam sputtering. Grazing incidence x-ray reflectometry, soft x-ray reflectometry, and transmission electron microscopy reveal asymmetric multilayer structures with a larger B4C-on-Cr interface, which we modeled with a 1-1.5 nm thick interfacial layer. Reflectance measurements in the vicinity of the Cr L2,3 absorption edge demonstrate fine structure that is not predicted by simulations using the currently tabulated refractive index (optical constants) values for Cr.

A new streaked soft x-ray imager has been designed for use on high energy-density (HED) physics experiments at the National Ignition Facility based at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This streaked imager uses a slit aperture, single shallow angle reflection from a nickel mirror, and soft x-ray filtering to, when coupled to one of the NIF's x-ray streak cameras, record a 4× magnification, one-dimensional image of an x-ray source with a spatial resolution of less than 90 μm. The energy band pass produced depends upon the filter material used; for the first qualification shots, vanadium and silver-on-titanium filters were used to gate on photon energy ranges of approximately 300-510 eV and 200-400 eV, respectively. A two-channel version of the snout is available for x-ray sources up to 1 mm and a single-channel is available for larger sources up to 3 mm. Both the one and two-channel variants have been qualified on quartz wire and HED physics target shots.