Stripe pattern in the intensity profile of collimated soft x-ray beams caused by surface corrugation of the refocusing mirrors

The effect of progress in surface finishing of optical components on the collimated-beam properties of soft x-ray beamlines at synchrotron radiation facilities is demonstrated: a stripe pattern, experimentally observed in the 2D intensity profile of beamlines with optical components manufactured 10-15 years ago, would be strongly attenuated if the existing refocusing mirror was replaced by an ultra-precise mirror manufactured with state-of-the-art of today surface finishing techniques. The observed stripe pattern is not caused by diffraction because its period length did not change with photon energy. Instead it can be explained with geometrical optics and is due to the height profile of the refocusing mirror which has been independently measured with a long trace profiler and used as an input in our raytracing simulations.