Various X-ray optics with an optical length of 150~500 mm are employed for beam guidance

beam alignment and monochromatization. This paper focuses on two different types of large X-ray mirrors. The first optical element is a single-layer mirror which works as a total-reflection mirror in the soft X-ray range (50~200 eV) and at a grazing incidence angle of 2°. Such a mirror is used in free-electron lasers

e.g

. FLASH in Hamburg

Germany. The second mirror is a multilayer mirror

which is employed as a reflector due to its Bragg reflection for the hard X-ray range (20~50 keV) and at incidence angles of 0.4~1°. Such a mirror could be used at a synchrotron storage ring

for instance in a tomography beamline. In both cases

the mirrors are fabricated by means of state-of-the-art physical vapour deposition techniques

using magnetron sputtering to achieve a good optical quality for their X-ray optical application. This deposition process allows good run-to-run stability

which is crucial for the final deposition of the actual mirror on a high-quality substrate. Both the single and the multilayer mirrors have a high reflectivity for their relevant energy range

a low roughness on their surfaces and a good uniformity of these properties over the whole optical wavelength. The investigations described here are performed by means of X-ray reflectometry (XRR)

transmission electron microscopy (TEM)

optical profilometry (OP) and atomic force microscopy (AFM).