The effect of pulse duration of Nd:YAG laser with wavelength of 1.064 μm on the generation of 13.5 nm extreme
ultraviolet (EUV) emission and ions was investigated. It was found that almost constant in-band (2 % bandwidth)
conversion efficiency (CE) is obtained from Sn plasmas irradiated with Nd:YAG laser pulse with durations from 0.13 to
30 ns. It was also noted that Sn ions kinetic energy generated with a 30 ns laser pulse is much less than those with 0.13
and 7 ns laser pulses. The measurement on the narrow-band EUV imaging showed that EUV source size strongly
depends on laser intensity instead of pulse duration and small EUV size is still possible with laser pulse duration as long
as 30 ns. The key reason for the constant CE and the still small EUV source size obtained with long laser pulse duration
comes from the small laser focal spot employed in the present experiment, i.e., 40 μm (FWHM). This research shows
that an efficient and bright EUV source is feasible with a long pulse duration Nd:YAG laser. The lower peak intensity of
EUV emission due to the long pulse duration makes the EUV source more suitable for EUV metrology.
Experimentally observed density profile of CO2 laser-produced Sn plasma was compared with that predicted by one
dimensional hydrodynamic radiation numerical code. Experimental data showed a much smaller corona and a much
shorter shift distance of the critical density from the initial target surface as compared with those predicted by an
isothermal model and the numerical simulation. The possible reason may come from thin localized laser deposition
region, less energy transport into the corona and into the dense region beyond the critical density. This research suggests
that more efforts to understand the fundamental dominating the interaction of CO2 laser with high Z plasma are
necessary to form a more solid foundation for the application of numerical method to the development of the EUVL
source.
The depth of mass ablation in planar Sn targets during the interaction with a pulsed Nd:YAG laser was investigated. The
pulse duration and laser spot size were fixed, and the laser energy was varied to achieve laser intensities from
approximately 1011 to 1012 W/cm2, which is relevant to the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography application. The
ablation depth was measured by irradiating layered targets consisting of a thin Sn coating with variable thickness
evaporated onto a Si wafer. The Sn coating thickness at which the signatures of Si ions in the expanding plasma
disappeared indicated the ablation depth. Redundant diagnostics were utilized to detect Si ions in the expanding plasma,
including a calibrated EUV energy monitor, an EUV spectrometer, and an electrostatic ion energy analyzer. The
ablation depth was found to scale with the laser intensity to the (5/9)th power, which is consistent with analytical models
of steady-state laser ablation developed for the laser fusion application, at which laser intensity is generally higher than
present in the EUV lithography application.
Previous experiments on Nd:YAG laser produced Sn plasmas showed little dependence of the location of the dominant in-band extreme ultraviolet emitting region on target geometry. Modeling and experiments were preformed in order to better understand this phenomenon. A two-dimensional radiation hydrodynamic code, h2d, was benchmarked with experiments using Sn microspheres. Numerically obtained densities above the diagnostic limitation and temperature profile maps, which cannot be measured experimentally, were used to explain the effect, which comes from a relatively small change in the location of the critical density surface. This is important to EUV lithography because both the density and temperature play significant roles in the generation and transport of in-band EUV light. It is desired to have the highest possible density at the dominant emitting surface and the smallest possible surrounding plasma to produce high 13.5 nm conversion efficiency (2% bandwidth). The target geometry impacts the amount of lateral expansion leading to dramatically different density profiles and therefore can be optimized to meet these conditions.
Dynamics of laser-produced Sn-based plasmas were investigated for a monochromatic EUV lithography (EUVL) source.
A hollow plasma density in a Sn plasma driven by Nd:YAG laser was observed in the late time within the laser pulse.
The possible reason comes from the distributed laser energy deposition in the expanding corona. This distributed
absorption results in a temperature gradient in the corona and a broad EUV spectrum. It was shown that for CO2 laser
most of the laser energy deposition is localized around the critical density, a narrower EUV x-ray spectrum and a higher
conversion efficiency from laser to monochromatic 13.5 nm EUV emission can be expected. It was found that 0.5% Sn-doped
foam targets show an almost the same electron density as compared with that of solid density Sn targets. The
same ne enables efficient absorption of laser energy, and at the same time much lower Sn ion number density results in
less re-absorption of the in-band 13.5 nm EUV emission induced by the plasma itself, so high CE can be expected with a
low concentration of Sn.
We present efforts to mitigate debris from laser-produced Sn plasma by introducing a low energy pre-pulse while
keeping high in-band conversion efficiency from laser to 13.5 nm extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light. The basic idea is to
separate the processes of plasma production and 13.5 nm EUV light generation. A low energy pre-pulse is introduced to
create a pre-plume; the main pulse then heats up the pre-plume to the optimum temperature for efficient 13.5 nm EUV
light generation. Much lower ion energy and nearly the same conversion efficiency were simultaneously observed from
plasma driven by a dual-pulse as compared with that of a single pulse. Thin Sn coating were investigated as a form of
mass-limited target. It was found that the higher ion energy normally accompanying the use of a mass-limited Sn target
is effectively maintained under 100 eV by using the dual pulse irradiation technique. A Sn coating as thin as 30 nm
could generate almost the same conversion efficiency as that obtained with a single pulse and a massive target. It was
noted that less gas is required to mitigate ions with lower energy when dual pulses are used. This research enables an
efficient, clean, and high-speed mass-limited target supply based on pure Sn for a high volume manufacturing (HVM)
EUVL source.
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