We discuss a concept of a pointlike source of extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) light based on a nonequilibrium microwave discharge in an expanding jet of dense xenon plasma with multiply charged ions. The conversion efficiency of microwave radiation to EUV light is calculated, and physical constraints and opportunities for future devices are considered. Special attention is given to trapping of spontaneous line emission inside a radiating plasma spot that significantly influences the efficiency of an EUV light source.
We report the first direct demonstration of possibility to generate the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation with a freely expanding jet of dense plasma with multiply-charged ions supported by high-power microwaves. The detected emission power is about 20 W at 18-50 nm for argon and xenon and 0.3 W at 13-17 nm for xenon. The discharge with a peak electron density up to 3 × 10 16 cm −3 and a characteristic size of 150 µm is supported by a focused radiation of a recently developed gyrotron with unique characteristics, 250 kW output power at 250 GHz, operating in a relatively long (50 µs) pulse mode. Up-scaling of these experimental results gives grounds for development of a point-like kilowatt-level EUV source for a high-resolution lithography able to fulfill requirements of the microelectronics industry.
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