▎ 摘　　要

NOVELTY - Manufacturing an optical element, the element intended to be reflective or transmissive at a target wavelength of 0.1-250 nanometer, involves providing a substrate; assembling a set of nanoscale building blocks into a configuration or scaffold structure having a predefined arrangement; and depositing, using atomic layer deposition, a material into the assembled configuration or scaffold. USE - The method is useful for manufacturing optical element (claimed). It can also be used for lithography, wafer patterning, astronomical and space applications, biomedical applications, biotech or other applications. ADVANTAGE - Atomic layer deposition is a self-limiting process which produces exceptionally high quality films of good stoichiometry, high purity, bulk density, three-dimensional (3D) conformality, low defectivity and low surface roughness. The materials or material configurations can improve performance of extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) systems. The materials can further improve performance in non-lithography systems which may use UV, EUV, or soft X-ray wavelengths. The new materials can contain nanoscale features designed to extraordinarily increase optical transmission of light through a surface plasmon effect, or reduced optical absorption. This is useful to produce highly transparent materials as may be needed for a pellicule or a lens. DETAILED DESCRIPTION - INDEPENDENT CLAIMS are included for: (1) an optical element for use at a target wavelength of 0.1-250 nm; and (2) characterizing an optical element, the element intended to be reflective or transmissive, at a target wavelength of 0.1-250 nanometer, which involves providing a predefined design for an arrangement of nanoscale building blocks that form a material configuration; providing a simulated efficiency for the predefined design; imaging the optical element using a scanning electron microscope or atomic force microscope: identifying, using image from the imaging evaluation, the nanoscale building blocks; comparing the identified nanoscale building blocks to the pre-defined arrangement; measuring the efficiency of the optical element at the target wavelength; and comparing the measured efficiency to the simulated efficiency.