Silicon-metal multilayers, which are designed as soft x-ray mirrors, have been fabricated with e – beam evaporation in Bielefeld. Quartz oscillators and in situ soft x-ray reflection with C-k radiation were applied to control the fabrication process. The Mo/Si and Ta/Si layer systems were fabricated for wavelengths between 12 and 30nm and normal radiation incidence. They were studied with synchrotron radiation soft x-ray reflection in the PTB laboratory at BESSY in Berlin and with Cu-K[alpha] reflection as well as the surface analytical methods Rutherford-Backscattering (RBS) and Sputtering in combination with Auger electron spectroscopy (Sputter/AES) in Bielefeld. The optical data, C-k in situ reflectivity, Cu-k[alpha] and synchrotron radiation reflection, are compared with calculations on the basis of the Fresnel equations. Tests were made with RBS and Sputter/AES to prove their suitability for a study of the multilayer microstructures and their changes after thermal treatments.