Energy- and charge-state-resolved spectrometry of tin laser-produced plasma using a retarding field energy analyzer

We present a method to obtain the individual charge-state-dependent kinetic-energy distributions of tin ions emanating from a laser-produced plasma from their joint overlapping energy distributions measured by means of a retarding field energy analyzer (RFA). The method of extracting charge state specific parameters from the ion signals is described mathematically, and reinforced with experimental results. The absolute charge-state-resolved ion energy distributions is obtained from ns-pulse Nd:YAG-laser-produced microdroplet tin plasmas in a setting relevant for state-of-the-art extreme ultraviolet nanolithography.

Automated summary

This paper presents a method to obtain the charge-state-dependent kinetic-energy distributions of tin ions from a laser-produced plasma. The method utilizes the overlapping energy distributions measured by a retarding field energy analyzer and mathematically extracts charge state specific parameters from ion signals. Experimental results support the effectiveness of the method. The study is important for understanding the characteristics of tin ions in extreme ultraviolet nanolithography.