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