Researchers Achieve 40% Efficiency Boost in Extreme Ultraviolet Light Generation Using Dual-Beam Laser
Researchers demonstrated a 40% improvement in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) conversion efficiency by splitting a single 2-micrometer laser pulse into two equal beams aimed simultaneously at a tin target. The technique raised EUV conversion efficiency from 2.6% to 3.6%, the highest reported for this class of laser-produced plasma sources. Higher EUV source power is critical for advancing next-generation semiconductor lithography, particularly for high-NA and hyper-NA systems used in cutting-edge chip manufacturing.
A team of researchers from institutions including Waseda University, RIKEN, and University College Dublin has shown that irradiating a planar tin target with two simultaneous 20 mJ laser beams from a 2090-nm Ho:YAG laser — rather than a single 40 mJ beam — raises EUV conversion efficiency from 2.6% to 3.6%, a 40% relative improvement. Crucially, the total pulse energy remained the same across both configurations, meaning the gain comes from beam geometry rather than increased energy input. Plasma diagnostics confirmed that EUV source size (60–70 micrometers) and energetic-ion spectra were nearly identical between single- and dual-beam setups, indicating the underlying plasma conditions were comparable. The approach relies only on passive beam splitting, making it straightforward to implement and potentially scalable to three or more beams. The authors argue this offers a practical pathway toward multi-kilowatt-class EUV sources needed for high-NA and hyper-NA lithography nodes, where source power is a key bottleneck. The work is currently a preprint submitted to arXiv and has not yet undergone formal peer review.
What's missing
As a preprint, this work has not yet been peer-reviewed. The study does not address long-term target debris management or tin contamination effects under dual-beam operation, which are known engineering challenges for EUV sources in production environments. Scalability claims for three or more beams are theoretical and not experimentally demonstrated in this work.
What different sources said
- arXiv physicsCenter
40% boost in extreme ultraviolet conversion efficiency via simultaneous dual-beam 2-{\mu}m laser irradiation
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