This proposal for a Career Advancement Award outlines a program to determine the capacity of obtaining high contrast images in reflection from samples of high and low atomic number materials when illuminated with soft-x-rays of wavelengths ranging from 10nm-40nm. The demonstration of high contrast image capabilities in spite of very low reflectivities in this wavelength region, would provide the basis for developing an ultra-high- resolution (0.03um) soft-x-ray reflection microscope illuminated by a laser plasma source. One important application of such a microscope would be a defect inspection system for 0.1um feature size membrane masks for x-ray proximity lithography.
