Rare-earth plasma extreme ultraviolet sources at 6.5-6.7 nm

We have demonstrated a laser-produced plasma extreme ultraviolet source operating in the 6.5-6.7 nm region based on rare-earth targets of Gd and Tb coupled with a Mo/B4C multilayer mirror. Multiply charged ions produce strong resonance emission lines, which combine to yield an intense unresolved transition array. The spectra of these resonant lines around 6.7 nm (in-band: 6.7 nm +/-1%) suggest that the in-band emission increases with increased plasma volume by suppressing the plasma hydrodynamic expansion loss at an electron temperature of about 50 eV, resulting in maximized emission.