A zone plate multilayer structure includes a substrate carrying a plurality of alternating layers respectively formed of tungsten silicide (WSi.sub.2) and silicon (Si). The alternating layers are sequentially deposited precisely controlling a thickness of each layer from a minimum thickness of a first deposited layer adjacent the substrate to a maximum thickness of a last deposited layer. The first minimum thickness layer has a selected thickness of less than or equal to 5 nm with the thickness of the alternating layers monotonically increasing to provide a zone plate multilayer structure having a thickness of greater than 12 .mu.m (microns). The x-rays are diffracted in Laue transmission geometry by the specific arrangement of silicon and tungsten silicide.