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Plasmas induced by EUV radiation are scarcely investigated, although they are unique since they are created without any discharge. These plasmas are also of interest from an applicational point of view, since they are related to the lifetime of optics in EUV lithography tools. In order to assess this impact, it is essential to characterize and understand EUV-induced plasma. In this contribution the influence of the background gas (argon and hydrogen) in the lithography tool and the spectrum of the illumination source on the electron density of EUV-induced plasma is investigated using microwave cavity resonance spectroscopy. The experimental results showed that out-of-band radiation (>20 nm) is the main contributor to EUV-induced plasma in both argon and hydrogen. In hydrogen, this contribution is relatively more important than in argon due to the stronger wavelength dependence of the photoionization cross section of hydrogen than of argon. Furthermore, the production of electrons by out-of-band radiation lasts longer than the production by in-band radiation (10–20 nm) due to the longer temporal width of out-of-band radiation. Finally, the obtained results correspond reasonably well with estimates from a simplified absorption model.

The production of OH in a nanosecond pulsed filamentary discharge generated in pin–pin geometry in a He–H2O mixture is studied by time and spatially resolved laser-induced fluorescence. Apart from the OH density the gas temperature and the electron density are also measured. Depending on the applied voltage the discharge is in a different mode. The maximum electron densities in the low- (1.3 kV) and high-density (5 kV) modes are 2 × 1021 m−3 and 7 × 1022 m−3, respectively. The gas temperature in both modes does not exceed 600 K. In the low-density mode the maximum OH density is at the centre of the discharge filament, while in the high-density mode the largest OH density is observed on the edge of the discharge. A chemical model is used to obtain an estimate of the absolute OH density. The chemical model also shows that charge exchange and dissociative recombination can explain the production of OH in the case of the high-density mode.

We studied the temporal evolution of the electron density distribution in a low pressure pulsed plasma induced by high energy extreme ultraviolet (EUV) photons using microwave cavity resonance spectroscopy (MCRS). In principle, MCRS only provides space averaged information about the electron density. However, we demonstrate here the possibility to obtain spatial information by combining multiple resonant modes. It is shown that EUV-induced plasmas, albeit being a rather exotic plasma, can be explained by known plasma physical laws and processes. Two stages of plasma behaviour are observed: first the electron density distribution contracts, after which it expands. It is shown that the contraction is due to cooling of the electrons. The moment when the density distribution starts to expand is related to the inertia of the ions. After tens of microseconds, the electrons reached the wall of the cavity. The speed of this expansion is dependent on the gas pressure and can be divided into two regimes. It is shown that the acoustic dominated regime the expansion speed is independent of the gas pressure and that in the diffusion dominated regime the expansion depends reciprocal on the gas pressure.

In this contribution we experimentally study temporally and spatially resolved radiating plasma species density distribution in plasma induced by irradiating a low pressure argon gas with high energy photons with a wavelength of 13.5 nm, i.e. extreme ultraviolet (EUV). This is done by recording the optical emission spatially and temporally resolved by an iCCD camera as a function of the argon gas pressure. Our experimental results show that the emission intensity, i.e. density of radiating plasma species, depends quadratically on the gas pressure. The linear term is due to photoionization and simultaneous excitation by EUV photons, the quadratic term due to electron impact excitation by electrons generated by photoionization. The decay of radiating plasma species can be divided into two phases. At time scales shorter than 10 μs (first phase), the decay is governed by radiative decay of radiating plasma species. At longer time scales (second phase, >10 μs), the decay is dominated by diffusion and subsequent de-excitation at the wall. The experimental decay and expansion during this phase corresponds well with a simplified diffusion model. In order to gain more insight in this exotic type of plasma, we compare the electron density from previous measurements with the results obtained here.