Vacuum 101 (2014) 360e366

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Vacuum
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Xenon plasma as a potential source for EUV and soft X-ray radiations:
Numerical experiments
M. Akel a, *, S. Alsheikh Salo a, S. Saboohi b, C.S. Wong b
a
Department of Physics, Atomic Energy Commission, P. O. Box 6091, Damascus, Syria
b
Plasma Technology Research Center, Physics Department, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The expected emission spectra of xenon plasma have been studied for different conditions using FLYCHK
Received 23 July 2013 code. Expected xenon plasma spectra at certain electron temperature range have been plotted. The
Received in revised form suitable electron temperature ranges for xenon plasma soft X-ray emission and extreme ultraviolet
3 October 2013
emission have been investigated. The X-ray ratio curves for various electron temperatures with probable
Accepted 4 October 2013
electron and ion densities of the xenon plasma produced have been computed with the assumption of
the non-local thermodynamic equilibrium model for the distribution of the ionic species. These ratio
Keywords:
curves could be used for electron temperatures deduction of xenon plasma. Numerical experiments have
Xenon plasma
Soft X-ray
been conducted on UNU/ICTP PF plasma focus device with Xe filling gas using Lee model. It shows and
EUV emission confirms the possibility of developing a UNU/ICTP PF plasma focus as a powerful EUV and X-ray radiation
FLYCHK code source simply by selecting the working gas pressure, choosing corresponding design and operating
X-rays ratio method parameters of the device. We have illustrated that the results obtained from FLYCHK simulation can be
used to provide spectroscopic information of the plasma focus simulated by using Lee model.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The application of extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) in
large scale semiconductor chip manufacturing requires a light
source of wavelengths between 100 and 200  A. Narrow spectral
bands particularly around the central wavelength of 135  A are of
main interest because of the available highly reflective multi layers
used for imaging a mask onto a semiconductor wafer [1,2]. Various
types of EUV and X-ray radiation sources, including synchrotrons,
the laser produced plasma and pulsed discharge sources such as the
capillary discharge [3,4], vacuum spark [5,6] and plasma focus [7,8]
are being considered. However, sources based on plasma focus are
commercially attractive since they are simple in operation, compact
and cost effective. The radiation output and the emission spectra
that may be obtained depend on the operating parameters of the
plasma discharge [9,10]. The dense plasma pinch discharge has
recently been considered as a possible light source for extreme
ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) [10]. This is of interest to the semi-
conductor manufacturing industry due to the expectation that the
Next Generation Lithography (NGL) will be using the wavelength of
135 A [11]. The relative strengths of the continuum and line
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: pscientific14@aec.org.sy (M. Akel).
emissions depend on how the plasma was formed; typically, for
plasma formed from a high-Z material continuum emission domi-
nates, while for a low-Z material line emission can be stronger. The
calculation of the power emitted by processes within the plasma
depends on assumptions made about the state of the plasma. Beg
et al. [12]., studied a 2 kJ, 200 kA, table top plasma focus device as
an intense X-ray source. The X-ray yield from a number of gases
(deuterium, nitrogen, neon, argon, and xenon) is measured as a
function of filling pressure. In gases with atomic number Z < 18, the
plasma implodes to form a uniform cylindrical column, whereas for
Z > 18, the plasma consists of a number of hot spots. The filter pairs
for each gas were chosen so as to record the line radiation for neon
(w12  A), argon (w3.9 A), and xenon (w3  A). In xenon, hot spots are
observed for all energy ranges. Similarly, the images in xenon
indicate that the emission is due to M-shell transitions with K-shell
emission being absent due to the temperature not being high
enough. The size and structure of the hot spots depend on the
spectral region being viewed. A larger number of hot spots are
observed in xenon compared with argon. Lebert et al. [13]., inves-
tigated X-ray emission from pinch plasma devices with pinch cur-
rents ranging from 200 to 400 kA operated with pure high-Z gases
with temporal spatial and spectral resolution. For Z > 18 (e.g.
xenon) emission with photon energy more than l keV is only
observed from micro-pinches. Soft X-ray sources are required for X-
ray lithography, microscopy and micro machine, which can be

0042-207X/$ e see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vacuum.2013.10.003
 M. Akel et al. / Vacuum 101 (2014) 360e366 361

produced in the high energy density plasma generated by plasma.

The X-rays from highly ionized xenon plasmas are much shorter in
wavelength. Therefore better aspect ratio could be achieved in
lithography application. However it is more difficult to get xenon X-
rays in plasma because more energy and higher temperature are
required. The predominant spectral range that is actually radiated
can be controlled by using a specific gas at a specific temperature.
Good soft X-ray yield can be achieved by xenon as a filling gas with
characteristic spectral energies around 4e5 keV.
Generally it is hardly possible to get the detailed accurate
knowledge of the states of the plasma. Approximate estimations, by
calculations based on simplified plasma models, may be carried
out. The most tractable plasma models are the local thermody-
namic equilibrium (LTE), the non-local thermodynamic equilibrium
(NLTE) or the corona equilibrium (CE), and the collisional-radiative
equilibrium (CRE). These plasma equilibrium models have been Fig. 1. The temperature ranges at which xenon ions Xeþ10 and Xeþ25 (EUV w 135 
A)
commonly used by many researchers to compute the ionization are prominent predicted by FLYCHK for NLTE Model.
and population distributions of plasmas [14e20]. The best known
code available recently for such computation is the FLYCHK code
distribution of these two groups of ionic species as predicted by
[21]. The code is scheduled to be straightforward to use and it can
NLTE model.
be applied to most laboratory plasmas. The FLYCHK code solves rate
FLYCHK code has also been used to synthesize the EUV emission
equations for level population distributions by considering colli-
spectrum from xenon plasma. The expected EUV xenon plasma
sional and radiative atomic processes. Moreover, it is applicable to
spectrum generated in plasma devices at different operational
use in steady-state or time dependent situations and it cover a wide
conditions has been calculated. The xenon plasma spectrum has
range of ions. The FLYCHK code solves for all ionization stages of
been deduced for electron temperatures in the range of 25e300 eV
atoms up to (Z ¼ 79). This code can be used for single species or
assuming NLTE. Fig. 2 presents EUV (10e200  A) xenon plasma
mixture, optically thin or thick plasma, Maxwellian or non-
spectra at two temperatures Te ¼ 35 and 250 eV for NLTE model.
Maxwellian electron distributions plasmas. Coronal, LTE, NLTE or
Fig. 3 presents EUV (110e150  A) xenon plasma spectra at Te ¼ 25,
collisional radiative plasmas can be considered in assumption.
50, 200, 225, 250, 275, 300 eV for NLTE model, Ne ¼ 1019 cm 3. Fig. 3
Moreover, plasmas with arbitrary electron energy distributions,
shows that the total emissivity of xenon plasma for wavelength of
single or multiple electron temperatures can be studied by using
135 A increases with increasing the electron temperature until it
FLYCHK code [21].
reaches the maximum value of about 43  10 7 J/cm3/s/Hz/srad at
In this work, the FLYCHK code is used to study the EUV and X-ray
the temperature of 200 eV, after which it decreases with higher
emissions of xenon plasma. The spectra of radiation emissions from
temperatures.
the xenon plasma have been simulated for different plasma con-
ditions. The calibrated ratio curves for electron temperature mea-
surements of xenon plasma have also been obtained. We believe 2.2. Xenon plasma as soft X-ray source
that the data presented in this paper can be useful for the devel-
opment of the xenon plasmas soft X-ray and EUV sources. Based on FLYCHK calculations for NLTE model, the suitable
temperature range for generating H-like (LIV) 1s-2p, Xe: 0.396  A
(hnLya ¼ 31,283 eV), 1s-3p, Xe: 0.336  A (hnLyb ¼ 36,833 eV) and He-
2. Numerical experiments: results and discussion like (LIII) 1 s2-1s2p, Xe: 0.4 
A (hnHeb ¼ 30,593 eV) ions from xenon
plasma was found to be 70e400 keV (see Fig. 4).
2.1. Xenon plasma as extreme ultraviolet (EUV) source

According to FLYCHK code with NLTE model [21], there are two
possible ranges of temperature at which xenon plasma is expected
to consist of ionic species that can be considered as emitters of line
Emissivity(1e J/cm /s/Hz/srad)

radiations at wavelength around 135  A. At a temperature of around 10

25e40 eV, the Xeþ10 is prominent, whereas at a temperature of
around 275e400 eV, the xenon plasma is expected to consist of
predominantly the Xeþ25 ionic species. These ionic species are
3

known to be able to emit intense line radiations at or near 135  A as 1

-7

listed in Table 1 [22,23]. Fig. 1 shows the normalized ion population

o
EUV (135 A )
Table 1
Expected lines near 135 
A from xenon ions Xeþ10 and 0.1
Xeþ25.
Xenon Spectra at:
Ion Wavelength (
A) Te = 35 eV
Xeþ10 134.987
Te = 250 eV
Xeþ10 135.1 0.01
Xeþ10 135.072 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Xeþ10 135.145 O
Xeþ25 134.852 Wavelength (A )
Xeþ25 135.1
Fig. 2. Simulated EUV xenon plasma spectra at two different temperatures.
362 M. Akel et al. / Vacuum 101 (2014) 360e366

80 emission of xenon plasma at Te ¼ 5000 eV for NLTE model,

EUV Xenon Spectra, NLTE
Te = 25 eV
Ne ¼ 1019 cm 3, Ni ¼ 1018 cm 3. The electron temperature effect on
the plasma emissions has been studied. As expected from theo-
Emissivity(1e J/cm /s/Hz/srad)

70 Te = 50 eV
Te = 200 eV retical consideration of plasma emission [24,25], the continuum of
Te = 225 eV the X-ray emission spectrum is observed to shift towards shorter
60
Te = 250 eV
Te = 275 eV wavelength with increasing electron temperature. The relative
o
3

50 Te = 300 eV EUV (λ = 135 A ) population of the ionic species present is also affected by the
temperature.
-7

40 Figs. 6 and 7 show variations of the soft X-ray emissivity versus

30
20
10
0
110 115 120 125
Wavelength (A )
Fig. 3. Computed EUV (110e150 
A) xenon plasma spectra at different temperatures for
NLTE model.
From these results, we can say that for H-like and He-like ions
generation from xenon, i. e. for hard X-ray emission, high energy
and higher temperature are required. It is worth mentioning, that
in most recently known plasma devices, it is difficult to reach range
of temperatures suitable for generation H-like and He-like ions
from xenon plasma. So, based on these above mentioned consid-
erations, in this work, our numerical experiments have been car-
ried out for xenon soft X-ray generation for the wavelength range of
2e10 A. The plasma device operated with xenon designed to pro-
duce X-ray in this range of wavelengths can be a potential source of
soft X-rays for microlithography, micromachining and microscopy
of biological samples.
In our calculation, the NLTE model has been used to obtain an
estimate of the ionic distribution in the xenon plasma. This is
believed to be able to give sufficiently accurate results. FLYCHK code
has been used to synthesize the emission spectrum from xenon
plasma, where the computed spectral lines emitted from a plasma
are broadened by Doppler and Stark broadening [21].
The xenon plasma spectrum has been deduced at different
temperatures (Te in the range of 1000e10,000 eV), electron density
(Ne in the range of 1018 to 1020 cm 3) and ion density (Ni in the
range of 1017 to 1019 cm 3). Fig. 5 presents the expected radiative
electron temperature. From Fig. 6 it can be seen that the most
suitable temperature for wavelength near 9  A is about 5000 eV,
while for about 3  A is found to be about 7000 eV (see Fig. 7). So,
based on our obtained results, the suitable Te ranges for soft X-ray
emitted from xenon plasma may be determined. From the above
mentioned results, it can be said that the FLYCHK code is a good tool
for plasma diagnostic, especially for X-ray plasma study and elec-
tron temperature measurements.
130 135 140 145 150
O
2.3. Calibration curves for electron temperature measurements of
xenon plasma using SXUV and BPX65 detectors
In the experiments on the plasma devices, the filtered BPX65
and SXUV diodes have been used to measure the X-ray and EUV
radiation emitted, respectively, from the plasma simultaneously
[11]. A silicon pen junction photodiode with 100 nm silicon and
200 nm zirconium directly deposited filter [26] was used to mea-
sure EUV radiation in the wavelength range of 120 Ae180 
A. While,
the five channels BPX65 PIN diodes with different filters have been
widely employed to record the X-ray pulses generated by a plasma
devices [27e31].
The sensitivity curves of the BPX65 covered with 24 mm
aluminized Mylar and SXUV diode with 100 nm Si and 200 nm Zr
multilayer filter, plotted on the same graph, are shown in Fig. 8.
The emission spectra of the plasma is strongly dependent on the
plasma electron temperature. As above mentioned, the EUV radi-
ation emissions are prominent at lower electron temperatures of
plasma, while the X-ray radiations are prominent at higher tem-
peratures. So, plasma have two modes of operation, one emitting at
the EUV range and another emitting at the X-ray range. The signals
recorded by the SXUV detector provide information on the time
evolution of the EUV produced by the plasma operated at EUV
mode. These signals might be used to determine the electron
12
X-ray xenon spectrum at Te = 5000 eV
10
Emissivity(1e J/cm /s/Hz/srad)

o
λ = 2.75 A

8
o
λ = 9.191 A
3

o
6 λ = 2.74 A
-7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
O
Wavelength (A )
Fig. 4. Normalized xenon ion fractions at different temperatures predicted by FLYCHK
code assuming NLTE model. Fig. 5. Computed X-ray spectrum for xenon plasma with Te ¼ 5000 eV.
 M. Akel et al. / Vacuum 101 (2014) 360e366 363

7 Finally, the ratio of the generated spectrum by these combina-

X-ray xenon spectra at: λ = 9.191 A
o
tions due to the same EUV pulse can then be calculated as
Te = 4000 eV REUV ¼ IEUV/I0EUV:
6 Te = 5000 eV
Emissivity(1e J/cm /s/Hz/srad)

Te = 6000 eV Z
5 Pðl; Te Þ$SSXUV ðlÞ$exp ½mBe ðlÞxBe Š dl
o
λ = 9.086 A IEUV alll
REUV ¼ ¼ Z (3)
3

I0EUV
4 Pðl; Te Þ$SSXUV ðlÞ$dl
-7

alll
3
where SSxUV (l) is the SXUV sensitivity, m is mass absorption coef-
ficient of material, x is the absorption foil thickness.
2
Fig. 9 shows the emitted EUV xenon plasma spectrum, attenu-
ated after passing through Beryllium foils with varying thicknesses
1 (1e3 mm) using SXUV diode at Te ¼ 250 eV.
Many numerical experiments have been carried out with
0 different electron temperatures of xenon plasma and the sets of
9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 xenon plasma spectrum for different temperatures (Te ¼ 20e
O
Wavelength (A ) 300 eV) have been calculated to get the EUV signal ratio
(REUV ¼ IEUV/I0EUV). As an example, for our calculations, the set of
Fig. 6. Variation of (w9.1 
A) emission line intensity of xenon plasma with different graphs for Te ¼ 25, 30, 50, 200 eV are shown in Fig. 10. These ratio
three temperatures for NLTE model.
curves can be used as the calibration curves for the measurement of
electron temperatures for xenon plasma operated with EUV mode.
temperature of the plasma by the EUV foil absorption technique. As The electron temperature of the plasma can be deduced from
an example, the radiative emission intensity from the xenon plasma the measurement of the X-ray continuum emitted by the plasma
actually detected by the SXUV diode with Beryllium foils with operated with X-ray mode (high electron temperature). Most of the
varying thicknesses (1e5 mm) have been calculated. radiation from the xenon plasma, in this case, is expected to be due
For our calculations, the FLYCHK output file, SXUV and Beryllium to Bremsstrahlung produced by electron retardation in the
mass attenuation coefficient data vs. wavelength (l) are needed. Coulomb field of the ions. However, if impurities are present,
Where the attenuated plasma spectrum through SXUV photodiode recombination and line radiations obscure the freeefree radiation,
has been determined by using the following formula: and the interpretation of the experimental results becomes very
complicated [32]. The electron temperature can be determined
Z
from the analysis of radiation in the X-ray region [33,34].
I0EUV ¼ Pðl; Te Þ$SSXUV ðlÞ$dl (1) The attenuated radiative emissions of plasma through different
alll channels of BPX65 PIN diodes with varying absorption filters have
been calculated using the Ratio-BPX65 code [20,35]. Briefly, the
Then, emitted spectrum through additional different Beryllium
code has been written in FORTRAN 77 for studying the effect of the
foil thicknesses will be:
response of BPX65 photodiode, with Mylar and Aluminum foils
Z
filtering on the emitted spectra from plasma. The input data for this
IEUV ¼ Pðl; Te Þ$SSXUV ðlÞ$exp ½mBe ðlÞxBe Š dl (2) code are: FLYCHK output file, Mylar, BPX65 and aluminum mass
alll attenuation coefficient data vs. wavelength (l). Where the

o
18 λ = 2.737 A
0.16 SXUV (100 nm Si & 200 nm Zr) for EUV radiation
16 X-ray xenon spectra at: BPX65 with 24 µm Al-Mylar for X-ray radiation
Emissivity(1e J/cm /s/Hz/srad)

Te = 5000 eV 0.14
14 Te = 7000 eV
Sensitivity of diodes

Te = 9000 eV 0.12
12
3

10 0.10 o
EUV = 135 A
-7

8
0.08
6
λ = 2.75 Ao 0.06
4
0.04
2

0 0.02

-2 0.00
2.72 2.73 2.74 2.75 2.76 2.77 2.78 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
O o
Wavelength (A ) Wavelength, A

Fig. 7. Variation of (w2.74 

A) emission line intensity of xenon plasma with different Fig. 8. The sensitivity curves of BPX65 PIN diode (with 24 mm Al-Mylar) plotted
three temperatures for NLTE model. together with that of SXUV pen junction diode with 100 nm Si and 200 nm Zr.
364 M. Akel et al. / Vacuum 101 (2014) 360e366

Z
1000
Xenon specta at Te = 250 eV, Pðl; Te Þ$SBPX65 ðlÞ$exp ½mmylar ðlÞxmylar þmAl ðlÞxAl Š dl
Full spectra
alll
Spectra + SXUV RX ray ¼ Z
Emissivity(1e J/cm /s/Hz/srad)

100
Spectra + SXUV + 1 µ m Be foil Pðl; Te Þ$SBPX65 ðlÞ$exp mmylar ðlÞxmylar dl
Spectra + SXUV + 2 µm Be foil alll
10 Spectra + SXUV + 3 µm Be foil
(6)
3

where SBPx65 (l) is the BPX65 sensitivity, m is mass absorption co-

1
-7

efficient of material, x is the absorption foil thickness.

As an example, the radiative emission intensity from the xenon
0.1 plasma actually detected by the BPX65 PIN diode with 24 mm
aluminized Mylar and Aluminum foils with varying thicknesses
(10e100 mm) have been calculated. Fig. 11 shows the computed
0.01 emitted xenon plasma spectrum by FLYCHK, which show the
attenuated X-ray intensities recorded after passing through
different filters at Te ¼ 5000 eV.
1E-3
60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 For determination the electron temperature of the plasma by
o the X-ray foils absorption technique, the sets of xenon plasma
Wavelength, A
spectrum (continuum) for different temperatures (Te ¼ 1000e
Fig. 9. Computed spectra of xenon plasma through sets of Beryllium filters (1e3 mm) at 10,000 eV) have been calculated to get the X-ray signal ratio (RX-
Te ¼ 250 eV using SXUV diode. ray ¼ IX-ray/I0X-ray). As an example, for our calculations, the set of
graphs for Te ¼ 1000, 2000, 4000, 5000, 8000, and 10,000 eV at the
above mentioned conditions are shown in Fig. 12. These ratio
attenuated plasma spectrum through Mylar foils and BPX65 curves can be used as the calibration curves for the measurement of
photodiode has been determined by using the following formula: electron temperatures for xenon plasma operated as X-ray source.

Z 2.4. EUV and X-ray emissions from xenon plasma focus

I0X ray ¼ Pðl; Te Þ$SBPX65 ðlÞ$exp mmylar ðlÞxmylar dl (4)
alll
The typical plasma produced by the optimized UNU/ICTP PFF
plasma focus device has an electron temperature of several keV and
Then, emitted spectrum through additional different aluminum an expected electron density of 1019 cm 3. In these numerical ex-
foil thicknesses will be: periments, we consider the possibility of scaling down the tem-
perature of the UNU/ICTP PFF xenon plasma focus so as to operate it
Z as an EUV radiation source. The scaling can be done by optimizing
IX ¼ Pðl; Te Þ$SBPX65 ðlÞ$exp ½mmylar ðlÞxmylar þmAl ðlÞxAl Š dl (5) the electrical input energy, electrode geometry, and the operating
ray
pressure. In order to test the possibility of tuning the UNU/ICTP PFF
alll
to produce condition which is sufficient to produce intense EUV
Finally, the ratio of the generated spectrum by these combina- radiation but not X-ray, The Lee model code [36] has been used to
tions due to the same X-ray pulse can then be calculated as RX- compute line radiations at or near 135  A emitted from xenon
ray ¼ IX-ray/I0X-ray: plasma produced by plasma focus as an example. In the code, line

10000
1 Xenon specta Te = 5000 eV, NLTE, Ne = E19,
1000 Full spectra
EUV ratio curves of xenon spectra
100 Spectra + BPX65 + 24 µ m Mylar
Emissivity(1e J/cm /s/Hz/srad)

for different temperatures

Spectra + BPX65 + 24 µ m Mylar + 10 µm Al
Te = 25 eV 10 Spectra + BPX65 + 24 µm Mylar + 30 µm Al
EUV signal Ratio (REUV)

Te = 30 eV 1
Te = 50 eV 0.1
3

0.1 Te = 200 eV
0.01
1E-3
-7

1E-4
1E-5

0.01 1E-6
1E-7
1E-8
1E-9
1E-10
1E-3 1 o 10
Wavelength, A
0 1 2 3 4 5

Be foil, µm Fig. 11. Simulated spectra of xenon plasma through different sets of filters (BPX65 PIN
diode with 24 mm aluminized Mylar (D.1), BPX65 PIN diode with 24 mm aluminized
Fig. 10. Calculated absorption curves of SXUV coupled to sets of Beryllium foils but Mylar coupled to Aluminum foil thickness of 10 mm (D.2), and BPX65 PIN diode with
varying thicknesses (1e5 mm) for EUV from an xenon plasma (NLTE, Ne ¼ 1019 cm 3) at 24 mm aluminized Mylar coupled to Aluminum foil thickness of 30 mm (D.3)) at
various temperatures. Te ¼ 5000 eV.

1 speed factor is 172 kA/cm per (Torr of xenon)1/2 and the ion density
X-ray ratio curves of Xenon continuum spectra
for different temperatures (1000 - 10000 eV)
Ne = E19, NLTE model
)
X-ray signal Ratio (R
0.1
T = 10000 eV
0.01
T = 1000 eV
1E-3
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Al foil ( µ m)
Fig. 12. Calculated absorption curves of BPX65 coupled to Mylar (24 mm) and sets of
Aluminum foils but varying thicknesses (10e100 mm) for X-rays from an xenon plasma
(NLTE, Ne ¼ 1019 cm 3) at various temperatures.
radiation QL is calculated as follows:
dQL
dt
¼ 4:6  10 31 Ni2 Zeff Zn4 ðpa2min ÞZmax =T. Hence the line radia-
tion energy generated within the plasma pinch depends on the
following properties: number density Ni, effective charge number
Zeff, atomic number of gas Zn, pinch radius amin, pinch length Zmax,
plasma temperature T and the pinch duration. This generated en-
ergy is then reduced by the plasma self-absorption which depends
primarily on density and temperature; the reduced quantity of
energy is then emitted as the line radiation yield [36]. For optimi-
zation of the UNU/ICTP PFF plasma focus device for EUV emission,
the Lee model was firstly configured to operate according to the
UNU/ICTP PFF starting with the following bank, tube and operation
parameters: static inductance L0 ¼ 110 nH, C0 ¼ 30 mF, stray resis-
tance r0 ¼ 12 mU, cathode radius b ¼ 3.2 cm, anode radius
a ¼ 0.95 cm, anode length z0 ¼ 16 cm, discharge voltage V0 ¼ 12 kV.
Extensive numerical experiments using Lee model for optimization
of EUV yield from xenon plasma were carried out with the plasma
temperature required for possible EUV radiation (around 35e
40 eV). The storage energy E0 is varied from 2.2 kJ to 0.2 kJ by
changing the operating voltage V0 from 12 kV to 4 kV. Parameters
that are varied are anode length z0 and anode radius ‘a’, operating
pressure p0. After systematically carrying many numerical experi-
ments using Lee model on xenon plasma focus, we obtained the
optimum combination of V0, p0, z0 and ‘a’ for xenon EUV yield as
5 kV, 1.22 Torr, 4 cm and 0.95 cm respectively, with the outer radius
b ¼ 3.2 cm and the suitable peak axial speed va ¼ 1.3 cm/ms, the
peak radial shock vs ¼ 5 cm/ms and the peak radial piston speeds
vp ¼ 4 cm/ms. This combination of parameters predicts line radia-
tion (in the EUV range) yield of 17 J, with the corresponding effi-
ciency of about 5%. We also note that at this optimum configuration
Ipeak ¼ 70 kA, Ipinch ¼ 30 kA and ion density of about 1018 cm 3.
These numerical experiments on xenon plasma focus showed that
for generation of EUV, a low axial speeds (low temperatures (w35e
40 eV)) are required. These conditions could be achieved by using
optimized bank capacitance and electrode geometry plasma focus
devices.
For plasma focus operated for X-ray production, numerical ex-
periments using Lee model have also been carried out for soft X-ray
yields optimization of xenon plasma focus with the above
mentioned UNU/ICTP PFF parameters with the appropriate plasma
temperature required for possible X-ray generation. For these nu-
merical experiments the following results were obtained: the
suitable peak axial speed (va ¼ 14 cm/ms), the peak radial shock
(vs ¼ 49 cm/ms), the peak radial piston speeds (vp ¼ 35 cm/ms), the
M. Akel et al. / Vacuum 101 (2014) 360e366 365
is about 1018 cm 3. At these conditions the soft X-ray emitted from
xenon plasma focus was found to be 0.1 J at pressure of 0.1 Torr.
These numerical experiments on xenon plasma focus showed that
for generation of soft X-ray, a high axial speeds (hence high tem-
perature of >3000 eV) and low pressure are required. These con-
ditions could be achieved by using optimized plasma focus devices
(high operating voltage, low external inductance, high capacitance,
and with optimized electrode geometry at low operation pres-
T = 8000 eV sures). Then, based on electron temperatures and ion densities of
T = 5000 eV xenon plasma obtained by Lee model for EUV and X-ray generation,
we can proceed to obtain spectroscopic information for EUV and X-
T = 4000 eV
ray emissions of the xenon plasma focus using FLYCHK code as
T = 2000 eV reported earlier in this paper as illustrated in Figs. 2,3 and 5e7.
90 100
3. Conclusions
The radiation emission spectra of xenon plasma at various
plasma parameters have been computed using the FLYCHK code by
assuming an NLTE model for the plasma. Xenon plasma spectra have
been calculated for plasma operation as soft X-ray and EUV sources.
The suitable electron temperatures ranges for xenon plasma soft X-
ray (2.7e10 A) emission were found to be 5000e8000 eV, while for
EUV emission were estimated to be 25e300 eV. The calibration ratio
curves for electron temperature deduction of xenon plasma have
been computed. These ratio curves could be used as the calibration
curves for the measurement of electron temperatures for xenon
plasma. It has been demonstrated from the theoretical point of view
that a UNU/ICTP plasma focus device can produce EUV radiation by
its radiation mechanism with suitable operating parameters. From
the numerical experiments using Lee model, it was found that the
optimum operating voltage is found to be 5 kV (input energy of
about 0.4 kJ) with the anode length of 4 cm for producing maximum
EUV radiation of about 17 J associated with the required plasma
temperature near 35 eV. Numerical experiments on xenon plasma
focus showed that for generation soft X-ray, a high axial speeds
(high temperatures) and low pressures are required. These condi-
tions could be achieved by using optimized plasma focus devices.
This shows and confirms the possibility of developing a plasma
focus as a powerful EUV and X-ray radiation source for future
semiconductor industry as well as for microlithography, micro-
machining simply by selecting the working gas and choosing cor-
responding design and operating parameters of the device. Finally,
we would like to emphasize that the simulation results presented by
us will be useful to set the condition for any xenon hot plasma
source to be considered as EUV or soft X-ray source.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank general director of AECS for
support, guidance and encouragement. Solmaz Saboohi and
C.S.Wong are grateful to University of Malaya for support under
research grant RG204-11AFR.
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