The accurate determination of the azimuth of a given direction, e.g., the true (geographic) North, is of fundamental importance in many fields. Just as few examples, it guides buildings construction in civil engineering, supports environmental and cartographic surveys, allows the correct positioning and stability control of concentrating solar power plants, as well as of airport installations, provides the geographic North reference for geomagnetic measurements, contributes to the interpretation of the orientation choices of ancient constructions in archeoastronomy, can be the primary benchmark to calibrate other compasses or gyroscopes. When aiming at reaching azimuth measurements with accuracies well below 1°, magnetic compasses are unreliable: firstly, they indicate the magnetic North rather than the geographic one; secondly, they are heavily influenced by possible surrounding ferromagnetic items.
The main characteristics of the ENEA Discharge Produced Plasma (DPP) Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) source are presented together with results of irradiations of various materials. The DPP EUV source, based on a Xe–plasma heated up to a temperature of 30 ÷ 40 eV, emits more than 30 mJ/sr/shot at 10 Hz rep. rate in the 10 ÷ 18 nm wavelength spectral range. The DPP is equipped with a debris mitigation system to protect particularly delicate components needed for patterning applications. The ENEA source has been successfully utilized for sub–micrometer pattern generation on photonic materials and on specifically designed chemically amplified resists. Details down to 100 nm have been replicated on such photoresists by our laboratory–scale apparatus for contact EUV lithography. Preliminary EUV irradiations of graphene films aimed at modifying its properties have been also performed.
The archaeological cloth known as the Shroud of Turin is a controversial object for both scientific and religious reasons. After a brief introduction on the scientific data about the age of the cloth and the microscopic complexity of the images embedded on it, we discuss the unique reddish color of blood stains on the Shroud, which caught the attention of several scholars in the last decades. Various hypotheses were proposed to explain the blood stains reddish color, and the experimental tests produced uncertain results because data were not sufficient or were obtained in vitro. We have tested the strength of two hypotheses, namely, the long term influence of ultraviolet (UV) light on high-bilirubin blood and the presence of carboxyhemoglobin, respectively by RGB color analyses of high-bilirubin blood after irradiation by ns excimer laser pulses and UV lamp and by the study of the spectral reflectance of the blood stains on the Shroud.
Accurate knowledge of gas composition in volcanic plumes has high scientific and societal value. On the one hand, it gives information on the geophysical processes taking place inside volcanos; on the other hand, it provides alert on possible eruptions. For this reasons, it has been suggested to monitor volcanic plumes by lidar. In particular, one of the aims of the FP7 ERC project BRIDGE is the measurement of CO2 concentration in volcanic gases by differential absorption lidar. This is a very challenging task due to the harsh environment, the narrowness and weakness of the CO2 absorption lines and the difficulty to procure a suitable laser source. This paper, after a review on remote sensing of volcanic plumes, reports on the current progress of the lidar system.
We present a recently patented apparatus which consists of an extreme ultraviolet radiation source writing invisible
patterns on thin tags of alkali halides. The tags patterned using this method are almost impossible to counterfeit, and
offer a much better protection against fakes than available anti-counterfeiting techniques. We will discuss if this novel
technology is ready for industrial production of anti-counterfeiting tags.
Within a National Project on nanotechnologies, at the ENEA Research Centre in Frascati a micro-exposure tool for
projection lithography at 14.4 nm has been developed. The laser-plasma soft X-ray source is equipped with a patented
debris mitigation system developed in the frame of a European Integrated Project, in order to preserve the collecting
optics. A 90-nm-resolution patterning has been achieved on resist by this laboratory-scale tool based on a Schwarzschildtype
projection optics.
The faint body image embedded into the Turin Shroud has not yet explained by traditional science. We present
experimental results of excimer laser irradiation (wavelengths 308 nm and 193 nm) of a raw linen fabric and of a linen
cloth, seeking for a possible mechanism of image formation. The permanent coloration of both linens is a threshold
effect on the laser beam intensity and it can be achieved only in a surprisingly narrow range of irradiation parameters: the
shorter the wavelength, the narrower the range. We also obtained the first direct evidence of latent images impressed on
linen that appear in a relatively long period (one year) after a laser irradiation that at first did not generate a clear image.
The results are compared to the characteristics of the Turin Shroud, commenting the possibility that a burst of directional
ultraviolet radiation may have played a role in the formation of the Shroud image.
Within a National Project on nanotechnologies, a Micro-Exposure Tool (MET) for projection lithography at 14.4 nm,
based on a laser-produced plasma source, is being developed at the Frascati ENEA Center. The choice of this "exotic"
wavelength is due to the higher efficiency of a Debris Mitigation System (DMS) working in the interval of
approximately 14 nm < λ < 15 nm. It has to be noted that Mo/Si multilayer mirrors (MLM) can still have a high
reflectivity also at these wavelengths.
The solid-tape-target laser-generated plasma is driven by a XeCl excimer laser, with an optimized intensity of about
3•1010 W/cm2, generating an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) source with a diameter of about 0.2 mm. Clearly, this kind of
source emits a lot of debris (both atomic and particulate types) and the 7-cm-far collector mirror must be protected
against them.
The paper is mostly devoted to the accurate and systematic study of these debris and to their reduction. The results of
mitigation efficiency obtained with a DMS prototype are very encouraging and lead to the design and patenting of its
improved version.
We present the design elements and the preliminary experimental results of an Extreme-UltraViolet (EUV) exposure tool driven by the high-output-energy excimer laser-facility Hercules, which is aimed at printing a sub-100-nm-pattern on a photoresist in a single-shot irradiation.
The results of a numerical simulation of a conventional and a modified Schwarzschild objective are illustrated in relation with their use as imaging systems in an extreme ultraviolet lithography setup. It is demonstrated that the degradation of the resolution on the wafer due to the unavoidable tilt of the mask to the axis can fairly be vanished by a counter tilt of the wafer. In particular, it has been analysed the Schwarzschild objective setup under implementation at the ENEA Frascati Center within the context of the Italian FIRB project for EUV lithography.
The XeCl excimer laser Hercules at ENEA Frascati, thanks to its peculiar features, is a unique laser-facility for many irradiation experiments. Among these applications, most machine-time is devoted to drive a laser-plasma source. This laser-plasma source is used for high-resolution atomic spectroscopy, in vivo contact microscopy of biological samples, induced DNA damage, micro-radiography, generation of sub-micron luminescent pattern on Lithium Fluoride films for miniaturized active optical devices.
Recently, we equipped the Hercules-driven laser plasma source with a novel Debris Mitigation System to drastically reduce the amount of hot debris emitted by the solid target (potentially dangerous for optics, filters and detectors put near the plasma). Here we will discuss the challenging attempt of stopping debris emitted by our solid-target laser plasma, in order to achieve a clean and efficient EUV source.
An innovative approach is presented for modelling laser beam homogenization by means of the integration method. The numerical results are compared with experimental data, and the influence of the measurement technique is discussed.
We present experimental results of reshaping and making uniform the spatial energy distrubution of raw beams respectively emitted by a low-coherence excimer laser and by a highly coherent diode pumped Nd-YAG laser. We used an optical system which is able to homegenize "bad beams" having strong local intensity spikes, and to modulate almost continously the spot size of the homogenized beam along one or both axes in a fixed target plane. We have evaluated the results using the standard parameters described in the document of the International Organization for Standardization ISO 13694. We found that the reliability of the results is dependent both on teh experimental setup and on the definition of edge steepness and plateau uniformity of the quoted ISO document. Here we propose an amendment to the definition of these standard parameters that could improve their reliability.
New approaches of a spectrally tunable backlighting schemes based on a spherically bent crystal are considered. In a contrary to the traditional backlighting scheme, in which the investigated objects should be placed between the backlighter and the crystal, for the considered schemes an object is placed downstream of the crystal, before the tangential or after the sagittal focus and an image of the object is recorded at the distance from the object corresponded to the needed magnification. The magnification is defined by the ratio of the distances form the sagittal focus to the detector and from the object to the sagittal focus. A ray tracing modeling and experimental images of test meshes, obtained at an incidence angles of the backlighter radiation of 10° and 22°, are presented. It is demonstrated that, at incident angles up to 22°, a linear transformation of the obtained astigmatic images allows to reconstruct them with an accuracy (5 - 15%). A spatial resolution around 10 μm in a field of view of some mm2 is achieved, for the spectral range around 9 Å. It is also demonstrated that spherically bent crystals could be used for X-ray imaging of a self emitting plasma structures with a spatial resolution at least 50 μm in a field of view of some square millimeters for angles of incidence up to 22°.
A new imaging detector for EUV or soft-X-ray radiation based on optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) of lithium fluoride (LiF) films or crystals is presented. The first micro-radiography images of biological samples and of meshes obtained on LiF using a laser-plasma source or an X-ray laser are shown, and (up to now) a resolution better than one micron is demonstrated. The dependence of the coloration density vs the deposited X-ray dose is considered and the advantages of this new diagnostic technique for both coherent and non-coherent EUV sources, compared with CCDs detectors, photographic films and photoresists are discussed. This new detector is extremely suitable for laser plasmas and for X-ray lasers sources.
New studies concerning the performance of Pd films embedded with hydrogen are presented. The films were realized on Si wafers by thermal evaporation and soaked in hdyrogen for different days. Every experiment processed two or more samples, one of which was irradiated by an excimer laser the day before its analysis. The laser fluence was lower than 25 mJ/cm2 in order to avoid the film ablation and the maximum gas pressure was 5 bar. The samples were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and an electron microanalysis. Just after four processing days the films showed a morphological modification while with more than eight processing days new elements were observed, Na, S, Ca nd Rn. The found elements were absent in the no-treated samples.
We introduce a new optical system that is able to simultaneously make homogeneous the spatial energy distribution and vary the spot size of any light beam, including beams having strong local intensity fluctuations, without replacement of lenses and without changing the total length of the optical system. This homogeniser technology includes a software to design the optimum optical system to achieve the wished output beam performance, as well as to know how the beam shape changes when changing the position of each optical element. In this paper, we present the design software and the experimental results achieved with our technology applied to a large volume excimer laser.
The efficient coloration of LiF material, in the form of bulk and films, by EUV and soft X-rays emitted by a laser-plasma source is demonstrated. The short penetration depth of soft-X-rays is exploited to obtain high spatial resolution luminescent patterns while the high dynamic range of proportionality between X-ray dose and coloration is exploited for using LiF as image detector in micro-radiography and soft X-ray microscopy applications.
We present an optical system which simultaneously makes homogeneous the spatial energy distribution and varies the spot size of any light beam, including beams having asymmetric intensity spikes, without replacement of lenses and without changing the total length of the optical system. This homogenizer technology (patent pending) includes a software to design the optimum optical system to achieve the wished output beam performance, as well as to know how the beam shape changes when changing the position of each optical element. In this paper, we illustrate the principle of the new homogenizer, the design software performance and the experimental results achieved applying our technology to a large volume excimer laser.
New analytical expressions have been found for the mode volume, the output beam waist and radius of curvature of the Generalized Self-Filtering Unstable Resonator (GSFUR), in terms of the cavity parameters. This permits an easy comparison with the confocal SFUR, in order to choose the most appropriate resonator for a given active medium. Contrary to the general feeling, the SFUR choice results the best in term of mode volume for low (<14) absolute magnification values.
In this paper we summarise the results of the annealing of a-Si films done at ENEA Frascati by the XeC1 laser facility Hercules and the preliminary results of the characterisation work done on the first Italian industrial high-energy excimer laser, named Hercules L. Some information will be also given on a novel process to obtain homogeneous, large grain poly-Si and on a new homogeniser with zoom.
We present the results of beam quality measurements of an XeCl ((lambda) equals 0.308 micrometer) laser, equipped with a generalized self-filtering unstable resonator (GSFUR), while operating in the burst mode at repetition rates of up to 50 Hz. In particular, we have measured the behavior of the laser- energy distribution (both in the near- and far-field) and of the beam-angular-stability (BAS) vs. the repetition rate. The time-evolution of the divergence within the single laser pulse was also measured. The GSFUR is able to achieve a nearly diffraction-limited divergence since the beginning of the laser pulse, and to maintain the values of the times- diffraction-limit number, of the M2 parameter and of the BAS independent of the repetition rate. The BAS was measured by using two different techniques, and the results suggest that the reliability of the standards commonly used may depend upon the experimental set-up.
The XeCl laser facility Hercules, delivering a maximum energy of 8 J in 160 ns FWHM, has been used to irradiate amorphous silicon films on glass substrate. We designed an optical homogenizer to reshape the large cross-section of the laser beam (10 X 5) cm2, in order to reach a fluence up to 0.5 J/cm2 area. The beam resulted spatially homogeneous within 10 percent. We obtained poly- silicon films with grain size ranging from 0.1 to 2 micrometers , depending on the laser energy density. These preliminary results show that the grain size is critically fluence- dependent when the so-called super-lateral-growth regime is approached, with a maximum slope of the grain size vs. energy density greater than 0.5 micrometers /(mJ/cm2).
In the frame of a large project on new materials technologies for photovoltaic and microelectronic applications (FOTO), the process of amorphous silicon (a-Si) transformation into polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) by means of laser irradiation has been tested with a long-pulse (160 ns), 8 J/p XeCl source. Following the positive results, a laser source, having design parameters of 10 J/p, 120 ns, 10 Hz, has been designed and built, with the aim of realizing a laboratory line for the production of thin film transistors (TFTs) devices.
We have tested a high-repetition-rate X-ray diode working in reflection geometry, which uses commercial spark-plugs as plasma cathode. The results show that the spark-plug plasma cathode is a reliable, high-current and long-lifetime electron gun. After more than 106 shots, the dose, uniformity and ionization rate of the emitted X-ray guarantee an effective preionization of XeCl excimer laser discharges. Due to the low cost, the long lifetime and the substantial absence of maintenance, this X-ray diode seems suitable to preionize commercial gas lasers, such as excimer and TEA CO2 lasers.
KEYWORDS: Diffraction, Beam shaping, Near field, Resonators, Laser systems engineering, High power lasers, Fourier transforms, Excimer lasers, Mirrors, Optical testing
A novel definition of the times-diffraction-limit (TDL) number of a laser beam is given. A comparison is made with the commonly used beam-propagation parameter M2, which is unreliable for hard-edge beams, like those produced by unstable resonators with diffraction output coupling. The new suggested TDL number definition doesn't rely on the real beam comparison to a Gaussian beam, but on the comparison of the far-field performances of the real beam with respect to those of a uniphase beam with the same amplitude profile in the near field. A practical method is also given for the estimation of the TDL number of real beams. Finally, this procedure is applied to the high-peak-power laser beams generated by two excimer laser systems developed in ENEA.
A comparison is made between the beam quality parameter M2 and a new times-diffraction-limit-factor (TDL) for two high peak power XeCl lasers. The laser systems, equipped with unstable resonators, emit beams with different geometrical characteristic and optical quality. The results show that the M2-factor is always larger than the TDL value and this discrepancy increases if the beam is almost diffraction- limited. A novel method to obtain the far-field profile of coherent superGaussian-like beams and a simple technique to estimate the beam angular stability of a pulsed laser are also presented.
Based on the results obtained from two high peak power excimer lasers developed in the ENEA Research Centre of Frascati, equipped with different hard-edge unstable resonators, a comparison is made between the widely used M2 beam quality parameter and a newly defined 'times- diffraction-limit' (TDL) factor, pointing out the different meaning of the two coefficients, the respective limitations, and their range of applicability. A simple setup for the beam pointing stability estimation is also proposed.
We present the results of a compact three-electrode XeCl laser operated in a power oscillator-power amplifier (POPA) configuration with transverse mode selection. The smaller of two laser heads is an oscillator, equipped with a generalized self-filtering unstable resonator (GSFUR). The oscillator output beam has an energy of 9 mJ in a 75 ns FWHM pulse and is only 1.1 times over its diffraction limit. The single-pass amplified beam has an output energy of 90 mJ in a pulse 85 ns long and, with a times diffraction limit (TDL) equal to 1.6, reaches a brightness of 3 (DOT) 1014 Wcm-2ster-1. Operating the laser at low repetition rate (1 Hz), the beam pointing stability (BPS) of both oscillator and amplifier output beams has been measured. The angular fluctuations of the focused beams are each within 1/6 of their own total beam divergence.
The process of the spontaneous emission (SpE) from an active microscopic cavity (microcavity) is shown with emphasis on mirror separation of the order of the optical wavelength. The relevant effects of SpE enhancement and inhibition, non-exponential decay, and emission anisotropy are outlined for a cavity terminated by mirrors bearing either metal -- or semiconductor -- multilayered coatings. Finally, an experiment regarding the possibility of detecting the field distribution within the cavity of the emission wavelength is shown.
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