[en] The shadowing effect is one of the most urgent issues yet to be solved in high-volume manufacturing using extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL). Many studies have been conducted to mitigate the unexpected results caused by shadowing effects. The simplest way to mitigate the shadowing effect is to reduce the thickness of the absorber. Since nickel has high extinction coefficients in the EUV wavelengths, it is one of more promising absorber material candidates. A Ni based absorber exhibited imaging performance comparable to a Tantalum nitride absorber. However, the Ni-based absorber showed a dramatic reduction in horizontal-vertical critical dimension (H-V CD) bias. Therefore, limitations in fabricating a EUV mask can be mitigated by using the Ni based absorber.