Method for manufacturing contrast amplifying substrates

A method for producing a contrast-amplifying support comprising an absorbing substrate carrying at least one absorbing layer, said method comprising a design step for said support and a step of hardware production of the support in accordance with said design step, wherein said design step comprises the following steps:

• i) choosing an illumination wavelength λ;
• ii) choosing a material constituting said substrate and exhibiting, at said illumination wavelength λ, complex refractive index N3=n3−jk3, where k3≥0.01;
• iii) choosing an ambient medium in contact with said layer on the side opposite to said substrate and exhibiting, at said illumination wavelength λ, a real refractive index n0;
• iv) determining a nominal complex refractive index N1=n1−jk1 and a nominal thickness e1 of said layer which are such that it behaves in the guise of antireflection layer when it is illuminated under normal incidence at said illumination wavelength λ;
• and
• v) choosing a material constituting said layer and exhibiting, at said illumination wavelength λ, a complex refractive index whose real and imaginary parts coincide with those of said nominal complex refractive index at least by a tolerance of less than or equal to 5%;
• in which, during said step iv), said nominal complex refractive index and said nominal thickness are chosen satisfying the following conditions:
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