A low debris laser plasma soft X-ray source

Low debris laser plasma soft X-ray source is of great importance to micro-l ithography and microscopy. In this paper, a 1.06 mu m YAG laser with 2 J en ergy, 10 ns duration is employed to irradiate a CO2 cryogenic target. Soft X-ray spectra from the CO2 cryogenic target are obtained. Experimental resu lts of debris measurement from both CO2 cryogenic and Cu targets demonstrat e that the light source based on the CO2 cryogenic target shows great impro vement over conventional metal targets in debris reduction. (C) 2000 Elsevi er Science Ltd. All rights reserved.