52 research outputs found
Characterization of carbon contamination under ion and hot atom bombardment in a tin-plasma extreme ultraviolet light source
Molecular contamination of a grazing incidence collector for extreme
ultraviolet (EUV) lithography was experimentally studied. A carbon film was
found to have grown under irradiation from a pulsed tin plasma discharge. Our
studies show that the film is chemically inert and has characteristics that are
typical for a hydrogenated amorphous carbon film. It was experimentally
observed that the film consists of carbon (~70 at. %), oxygen (~20 at. %) and
hydrogen (bound to oxygen and carbon), along with a few at. % of tin. Most of
the oxygen and hydrogen are most likely present as OH groups, chemically bound
to carbon, indicating an important role for adsorbed water during the film
formation process. It was observed that the film is predominantly sp3
hybridized carbon, as is typical for diamond-like carbon. The Raman spectra of
the film, under 514 and 264 nm excitation, are typical for hydrogenated
diamond-like carbon. Additionally, the lower etch rate and higher energy
threshold in chemical ion sputtering in H2 plasma, compared to
magnetron-sputtered carbon films, suggests that the film exhibits diamond-like
carbon properties.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figure
Plasma probe characteristics in low density hydrogen pulsed plasmas
Probe theories are only applicable in the regime where the probe's
perturbation of the plasma can be neglected. However, it is not always possible
to know, a priori, that a particular probe theory can be successfully applied,
especially in low density plasmas. This is especially difficult in the case of
transient, low density plasmas. Here, we applied probe diagnostics in
combination with a 2D particle-in-cell model, to an experiment with a pulsed
low density hydrogen plasma. The calculations took into account the full
chamber geometry, including the plasma probe as an electrode in the chamber. It
was found that the simulations reproduce the time evolution of the probe IV
characteristics with good accuracy. The disagreement between the simulated and
probe measured plasma density is attributed to the limited applicability of
probe theory to measurements of low density pulsed plasmas. Indeed, in the case
studied here, probe measurements would lead to a large overestimate of the
plasma density. In contrast, the simulations of the plasma evolution and the
probe characteristics do not suffer from such strict applicability limits.
These studies show that probe theory cannot be justified through probe
measurements
Numerical and experimental studies of the carbon etching in EUV-induced plasma
We have used a combination of numerical modeling and experiments to study
carbon etching in the presence of a hydrogen plasma. We model the evolution of
a low density EUV-induced plasma during and after the EUV pulse to obtain the
energy resolved ion fluxes from the plasma to the surface. By relating the
computed ion fluxes to the experimentally observed etching rate at various
pressures and ion energies, we show that at low pressure and energy, carbon
etching is due to chemical sputtering, while at high pressure and energy a
reactive ion etching process is likely to dominate
N2-H2 capacitively coupled radio-frequency discharges at low pressure. Part I. Experimental results: Effect of the H2 amount on electrons, positive ions and ammonia formation
The mixing of N2 with H2 leads to very different plasmas from pure N2 and H2 plasma discharges. Numerous issues are therefore raised involving the processes leading to ammonia (NH3) formation. The aim of this work is to better characterize capacitively-coupled radiofrequency plasma discharges in N2 with few percents of H2 (up to 5%), at low pressure (0.3-1 mbar) and low coupled power (3-13 W). Both experimental measurements and numerical simulations are performed. For clarity, we separated the results in two complementary parts. The actual one (first part), presents the details on the experimental measurements, while the second focuses on the simulation, a hybrid model combining a 2D fluid module and a 0D kinetic module. Electron density is measured by a resonant cavity method. It varies from 0.4 to 5 109 cm-3, corresponding to ionization degrees from 2 10-8 to 4 10-7. Ammonia density is quantified by combining IR absorption and mass spectrometry. It increases linearly with the amount of H2 (up to 3 1013 cm-3 at 5% H2). On the contrary, it is constant with pressure, which suggests the dominance of surface processes on the formation of ammonia. Positive ions are measured by mass spectrometry. Nitrogen-bearing ions are hydrogenated by the injection of H2, N2H+ being the major ion as soon as the amount of H2 is >1%. The increase of pressure leads to an increase of secondary ions formed by ion/radical-neutral collisions (ex: N2H+, NH4 +, H3 +), while an increase of the coupled power favours ions formed by direct ionization (ex: N2 +, NH3 +, H2 +).N. Carrasco acknowledges the financial support of the European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant
PRIMCHEM, Grant agreement no. 636829).
A. Chatain acknowledges ENS Paris-Saclay Doctoral Program. A. Chatain is grateful to Gilles Cartry and
Thomas Gautier for fruitful discussions on the MS calibration.
L.L. Alves acknowledges the financial support of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through the project UID/FIS/50010/2019.
L. Marques and M. J. Redondo acknowledge the financial support of the Portuguese Foundation for Science
and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Funding UIDB/04650/2019
Comparison of H2 and He carbon cleaning mechanisms in extreme ultraviolet induced and surface wave discharge plasmas
Cleaning of contamination of optical surfaces by amorphous carbon (a-C) is highly relevant for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. We have studied the mechanisms for a-C removal from a Si surface. By comparing a-C removal in a surface wave discharge (SWD) plasma and an EUV-induced plasma, the cleaning mechanisms of two different gas environments (hydrogen and helium) were determined. The C-atom removal per incident ion was estimated for different sample bias voltages and ion fluxes. It was found that H2 plasmas generally had higher cleaning rates than He plasmas: up to seven times higher for more negatively biased samples in the EUV induced plasma. Moreover, for H2, EUV induced plasma was found to be 2-3 times more efficient at removing carbon than the SWD plasma. It was observed that the carbon removal under exposure to He in both SWD and EUV induced plasmas is due to physical sputtering by He+ ions. In H2, on the other hand, the increase in carbon removal rates, compared to He plasmas, is due to chemical sputtering. The proposed explanation is strengthened by the observation that lower sample temperatures—allowing longer residence times for adsorbed hydrogen species—results in higher cleaning rates. This is a new C cleaning mechanism for EUV-induced plasma, which we call “EUV-reactive ion sputtering.
Modeling of the effective electron energy distribution at an irradiated Multi Layer Mirror surface in vacuum
Characterization of carbon contamination under ion and hot atom bombardment in a tin-plasma extreme ultraviolet light source
Molecular contamination of a grazing incidence collector for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography was experimentally studied. A carbon film was found to have grown under irradiation from a pulsed tin plasma discharge. Our studies show that the film is chemically inert and has characteristics that are typical for a hydrogenated amorphous carbon film. It was experimentally observed that the film consists of carbon (similar to 70 at.%), oxygen (similar to 20 at.%) and hydrogen (bound to oxygen and carbon), along with a few at.% of tin. Most of the oxygen and hydrogen are most likely present as OH groups, chemically bound to carbon, indicating an important role for adsorbed water during the film formation process. It was observed that the film is predominantly sp(3) hybridized carbon, as is typical for diamond-like carbon. The Raman spectra of the film, under 514 and 264 nm excitation, are typical for hydrogenated diamond-like carbon. Additionally, the lower etch rate and higher energy threshold in chemical ion sputtering in H2 plasma, compared to magnetron-sputtered carbon films, suggests that the film exhibits diamond-like carbon properties. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
- …