Abstract

A thin Sn film was investigated as a mass-limited target for an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography source. It was found that those energetic ions that are intrinsic with the mass-limited Sn target could be efficiently mitigated by introducing a low-energy prepulse. High in-band conversion efficiency from a laser to $13.5\mathrm{nm}$ EUV light could be obtained using an Sn film with a thickness down to $30\mathrm{nm}$ when irradiated by dual laser pulses. It was shown that the combination of dual pulse and inert Ar gas could fully mitigate ions with a low ambient pressure nearly without the penalty of the absorption of the EUV light.

© 2007 Optical Society of America

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