The chemical modifications of B4C cap layers on sputtered Pd/B4C multilayer coatings for X-ray optical applications were investigated.
The samples were studied using X-ray reflectivity, PES, PEEM, TEM, EDX and FT-IR.
Both PES and PEEM investigations show that B is present in a B2O3 like compound at the sample surface.
The depletion of B from B4C layers with initial thicknesses below 4 nm were confirmed using TEM and EDX data.