Reflective mask blank, reflective mask, method of manufacturing reflective mask blank, and method of manufacturing reflective mask

A reflective r cask blank rising:

• a substrate;
• a multilayer reflective film that reflects EUV light;
• a protection film that protects the multilayer reflective film;
• and
• an absorption film that absorbs the EUV light, the substrate, the multilayer reflective film, the protect on film, and the absorption film being arranged in this order, wherein
• the protection film contains 50 at % or more of Rh, and
• when a hand-shaped gray scale image parallel to an interface between the protection film and the multilayer reflective film is obtained by imaging a cross section of the protection film with a transmission electron microscope (TEM) and a luminance profile of the gray scale image in a longitudinal direction of the gray scale image is created, a number of peaks of the luminance profile per 100 nm in the longitudinal direction of the gray scale image is 50 or more.