We demonstrate high conversion efficiency for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) emission at 6.5–6.7 nm from multiple laser beam-produced one-dimensional spherical plasmas. Multiply charged-state ions produce strong resonance emission lines, which combine to yield intense unresolved transition arrays (UTAs) in Gd, Tb, and Mo. At an optimum laser intensity of 1 × 1012 W/cm2, which is estimated to yield an electron temperature of around 100 eV, the maximum in-band EUV conversion efficiency (CE) was observed to be 0.8%, which is one of the highest values ever reported due to the reduction of plasma expansion loss.

We present a benchmark measurement of the electron density profile in the region where the electron density is 1019 cm–3 and where the bulk of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) emission occurs from isotropically expanding spherical high-Z gadolinium plasmas. It was found that, due to opacity effects, the observed EUV emission is mostly produced from an underdense region. We have analyzed time-resolved emission spectra with the aid of atomic structure calculations and find the multiple ion charge states around 18+ during the laser pulse irradiation.

With the advent of high volume manufacturing capabilities by extreme ultraviolet lithography, constant improvements in light source design and cost-efficiency are required. Currently, light intensity and conversion efficiency (CE) measurments are obtained by charged couple devices, faraday cups etc, but also phoshpor imaging plates (IPs) (BaFBr:Eu). IPs are sensitive to light and high-energy species, which is ideal for studying extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light from laser produced plasmas (LPPs). In this work, we used IPs to observe a large angular distribution (10°-90°). We ablated a tin target by high-energy lasers (1064 nm Nd:YAG, 1010 and 1011 W/cm2) to generate the EUV light. The europium ions in the IP were trapped in a higher energy state from exposure to EUV light and high-energy species. The light intensity was angular dependent; therefore excitation of the IP depends on the angle, and so highly informative about the LPP. We obtained high-space resolution (345 μm, 0.2°) angular distribution and grazing spectrometer (5-20 nm grate) data simultaneously at different target to IP distances (103 mm and 200 mm). Two laser systems and IP types (BAS-TR and BAS-SR) were also compared. The cosine fitting values from the IP data were used to calculate the CE to be 1.6% (SD ± 0.2) at 13.5 nm 2% bandwidth. Finally, a practical assessment of IPs and a damage issue are disclosed.

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