Disclosed herein is a method to produce hard x-ray phase gratings for x-ray multi-contrast imaging. The method is based on the conformal atomic layer deposition (ALD) of material with high x-ray refractive index decrement δ. The method is particularly suitable for submicron period x-ray phase grating fabrication. The fabrication process to produce x-ray phase gratings in this disclosure is compatible with standard semiconductor fabrication instrument and suitable for mass production.