Computational analysis of debris formation in SXPL laser-plasma sources

摘要

One of the goals of soft X-ray projection lithography (SXPL) is to devise laser plasma X-ray sources that minimize or entirely eliminate condensed debris. Our progress in developing a computational methodology for analyzing and predicting the formation of target debris in laser generated soft X-ray sources is presented. Our numerical approach requires (1) simulation of the laser/target interaction using the LASNEX radiation hydrodynamics code; (2) simulation of the thermomechanical response of the target using the CTH strong shock code; (3) and detailed debris predictions from extrapolation of CTH results to millisecond time scales via post-processing techniques. We will discuss scaling issues, give examples of calculations, and discuss experimental data.