A KrF-laser excited by a capacitively coupled longitudinal discharge

The performance of a KrF excimer laser, excited by a discharge produced in a quartz tube between two metallic electrodes at its end and the inner tube wall serving as a dielectric electrode, is described. The dielectric electrode is capacitively coupled to a metallic electrode surrounding the quartz tube coaxially. Laser output energies up to 0.9 mJ in pulses having a duration of 6 ns FWHM could be obtained at a driving voltage of 100 kV

A study of the electron quenching of excimers in a KrF* laser excited by a coaxial electron beam

Measurements of the output energy, the optical pulse length and the build-up time of the laser pulse, obtained with a coaxially e-beam pumped KrF* laser, were performed varying the total gas fill pressure, the F2 content and the e-beam current from 1–5 bar, 0.1–0.8% and 13.3–26.6 kA, respectively. The maximum specific extraction energy amounts to 64 J/l. The large range of measurements, especially at low F2 concentrations, reveals the necessity to extend the kinetics of the F2 chain in the usual computer model. With the introduction of electron quenching of KrF* and ArF* by dissociative attachment the predictions are also for low F2 concentration in agreement with experiments

Temporal extension of stable glow discharges in fluorine-based excimer laser gas mixtures by the addition of xenon

The effect of addition of xenon on the long term homogeneity of discharges in F2and ArF excimer laser gas mixtures was investigated in a small-volume discharge chamber. The gas mixture in the discharge chamber was preionized by X-rays. A special electrical excitation circuit containing a pulse forming line provided a long, square-shaped current pumping pulse of a predetermined duration to the discharge electrodes. The initiation and the development of the discharge was monitored via its fluorescence signal with an intensified CCD camera. We found that adding Xe up to partial pressures of 0.53 mbar extended the homogeneous phase of the discharge from 80 ns to approximately 200 ns in He/F2as well as in He/Ar/F2and Ne/Ar/F2excimer laser gas mixtures. Monitoring of the ArF and XeF spontaneous emission signals showed that the formation of ArF excimers remained unaffected by the addition of xenon (up to 1.3 mbar) to the laser gas mixture

Long-pulse KrCl laser with a high discharge quality \ud

The discharge quality and optimum pump parameters of a long-pulse high-pressure gas discharge excited KrCl laser are investigated. A three-electrode prepulse–mainpulse excitation circuit is employed as pump source. The discharge volume contains a gas mixture of HCl/Kr/Ne operated at a total pressure of up to 5 bar. For a plane–plane resonator, the divergence of both output laser beams is measured. A low beam divergence of less than 1 mrad is measured as a result of the very high discharge homogeneity. A maximum laser pulse duration of 150 ns (FWHM) is achieved for a pump duration of 270 ns (FWHM) and a power density of 340 kW cm-3. Pumping the discharge under optimum conditions employing a stable resonator results in a maximum specific energy of 0.45 J/l with a laser pulse duration of 117 ns and an efficiency of 0.63% based on the deposited energy

Formation and quenching mechanisms of the electron beam pumped (XeRb)+ ionic excimer in different buffer gases

The ionic excimer molecule XeRb+ is formed in an electron beam excited gas mixture of Xe, Rb, and a buffer gas. The formation and quenching mechanisms of ionic excimers are investigated by measuring the XeRb+fluorescence as a function of the gas composition and gas pressure. The formation of XeRb+ is achieved by a three‐body association reaction between Xe+, Rb, and a buffer gas atom. For the buffer gases He, Ne, or Ar the values of the important formationrate constants are determined from the observed fluorescence signal decay

Vacuum ultraviolet fluorescence of (XeRb)+ produced in an electron‐beam‐pumped gas mixture

With a pulsed electron beam a gas mixture of Ar, Xe, and Rb was excited producing (XeRb)+ ionic excimer molecules. To study the formation kinetics the (XeRb)+fluorescence pulse was measured as a function of the gas composition and the pumping density. From the observed fluorescence signal decay a value of 6±1×10−30 cm6/s for the formation rate constant of (XeRb)+ from Xe+, Ar, and Rb was determined

Small‐signal gain measurements in an electron beam pumped F2 laser

The net‐small‐signal gain of a molecular fluorine F2 * laser pumped by a coaxial electron beam has been measured in gas mixtures of He/F2 and He/Ne/F2. A peak net‐small‐signal gain of 0.63 cm−1 has been measured in a mixture of He/Ne/F2 at a pressure of 8 bar and a pumping power density of 13 MW/cm3

Narrow-band Borrmann multilayer filters for monitoring of EUV sources

EUV sources currently under development for high volume manufacturing are based on hot plasmas that produce next to 13.5 nm also broadband blackbody radiation and out-of-band line emissions.\ud For the accurate monitoring of the in-band (13.5 nm ± 2%) radiation power, narrow-band-pass filters are required. Standard filters such as absorptive thin layers can provide neither very narrow bandwidths, nor wavelength selectivity.\ud We propose an approach based on the Borrmann effect applied to multilayer stacks. This effect relies on the matching of the standing wave field within the multilayer stack with the structure: the minima of the wave field intensity are placed in the center of the absorbing layers, resulting in a resonant decrease in absorption and a narrow-band transmission spectrum for a specific wavelength.\ud We show calculated transmission spectra of Borrmann filters optimized for different bilayer materials, bandwidths, transmissions and wavelengths