System and method for separation of pump light and collected light in a laser pumped light source

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10520741-B2
Application number	US-201715651968-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 17, 2017
Priority date	Aug 14, 2013
Publication date	Dec 31, 2019
Grant date	Dec 31, 2019

Abstract

A system for separating plasma pumping light and collected broadband light includes a pump source configured to generate pumping illumination including at least a first wavelength, a gas containment element for containing a volume of gas, a collector configured to focus the pumping illumination from the pumping source into the volume of gas to generate a plasma within the volume of gas, wherein the plasma emits broadband radiation including at least a second wavelength and an illumination separation prism element positioned between a reflective surface of the collector and the pump source and arranged to spatially separate the pumping illumination including the first wavelength and the emitted broadband radiation including at least a second wavelength emitted from the plasma.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A system for separating pump light and collected light in a laser pumped light source comprising:
a pump source configured to generate pumping illumination including at least a first wavelength;
a first collector configured to collect and focus the pumping illumination from the pumping source into a volume of gas to generate a plasma within the volume of gas, wherein the plasma emits broadband radiation including at least a second wavelength;
a second collector configured to collect and focus broadband radiation emitted by the plasma, the second collector positioned opposite of the first collector; and
one or more windows transparent to the at least a first wavelength and positioned between the pump source and a concave collecting portion of the first collector, the first collector, the second collector and the one or more windows forming a gas containment chamber.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
one or more spherical mirrors disposed on an interior wall of the first collector and configured to reflect at least a portion of out-of-band light into the plasma.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the one or more spherical mirrors disposed on an interior wall of the first collector and configured to reflect at least a portion of in-band light onto the second collector.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the broadband radiation emitted by the plasma includes at least one of vacuum ultraviolet radiation, deep ultraviolet radiation, ultraviolet radiation and visible radiation.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more windows comprise:
a first window and a second window.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the second collector is positioned between the first window and the second window.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first collector is reflective to at least one of IR light, visible and UV light.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second collector is reflective to at least one of VUV light, DUV light and UV light.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first collector includes an output for transmitting at least a portion of the broadband radiation emitted by the plasma.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first collector and second collector comprises:
an ellipsoid-shaped collector.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the illumination source comprises:
one or more lasers.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the one or more lasers comprise:
at least one of one or more infrared lasers, one or more visible lasers and one or more ultraviolet lasers.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the one or more lasers comprise:
at least one of a diode laser, a continuous wave laser, or a broadband laser.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the gas comprises:
at least one of a noble gas, an inert gas, a non-inert gas and a mixture of two or more gases.

15. A system for separating pump light and collected light in a laser pumped light source comprising:
a pump source configured to generate pumping illumination including at least a first wavelength;
a gas containment element for containing a volume of gas;
a first collector configured to collect and focus the pumping illumination from the pumping source into the volume of gas to generate a plasma within the volume of gas, wherein the plasma emits broadband radiation including at least a second wavelength; and
a second collector configured to collect and focus broadband radiation emitted by the plasma, the second collector positioned opposite of the first collector, wherein a reflective surface of the second collector is separated from a reflective surface of the first collector.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the gas containment element comprises:
a plasma bulb for containing the gas.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein the gas containment element comprises:
a plasma cell for containing the gas.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the plasma cell comprises:
a transmission element; and
one or more flanges disposed at one or more ends of the transmission element for containing the gas.

19. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first collector and the second collector are of different sizes.

20. The system of claim 15 , wherein the first collector and the second collector are of different sizes.

Assignees

• Kla Tencor Corp

Inventors

• Shchemelinin Anatoly
• Bezel Ilya
• Panzer Matthew
• Shifrin Eugene

Classifications

• G02B27/1006 Primary

  for splitting or combining different wavelengths (G02B27/1086, G02B27/141 take precedence) · CPC title