Developments of vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) mirrors and optical elements
for intense synchrotron radiation in Japan are reported. High heat loa
d tests of chemical-vapor-deposited silicon carbide (CVD SIC) mirrors,
500 x 50 x 40 mm(3), were successfully made for undulator radiation w
ith heat flux of 0.4 W/mm(2). As extensions of various CVD SiC mirrors
developed at the Photon Factory, the largest CVD SIC mirror with sint
ered SiC substrate, 1000 x 140 x 25 mm(3), and the thin CVD SIC mirror
, 300 x 50 x 5 mm(3), were fabricated by the SP-ring 8 project. Heat l
oad tests of a CVD-SiC-based grating and a multilayer mirror exhibit p
ossibilities of making high heat load optical elements in the VUV and
soft x-ray (SX) regions. Measurements of optical properties of CVD SIC
mirrors produced by different methods showed that the optical constan
ts in the VUV and SX regions were almost equal to one another. A profi
lometer for measuring surface figures of large-size aspheric mirrors w
as constructed on the basis of the Twyman-Green interferometer with he
terodyne phase detection method.