Compact EUV laser modules have been developed in Germany: with an average power of 10 megawatts, they are more cost-effective

Researchers at Friedrich Schiller University in Germany have developed a compact extreme ultraviolet (EUV) laser module. The module can be used to produce special EUV light, which not only breaks the limitation of previous EUV experiments being conducted in large, expensive research facilities, but also makes them more cost effective.

Robert Klas, a scientist in Jena, Germany, is the developer of the compact EUV laser module, which produces EUV light in a facility the size of a laboratory workbench. It was for this work that Robert Klas was awarded the Hugo Geiger Award.

Robert Klas's doctoral thesis is based on a collaboration between Friedrich Schiller University (Jena), the Helmholtz Institute (Jena) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering (IAF) in Germany, and provides the most powerful laser-like EUV source to date on a laboratory scale, The average power is 10 megawatts.

Robert Klas uses a high-power ultrashort pulse fiber laser. By using high harmonic generation, these short laser pulses are converted into EUV light. He focused a high-powered laser on an inert gas, and in doing so, the electrons accelerated dramatically in 100 attoseconds.

(Photo credit: Fraunhofer IOF)

The main challenge is to coherently stack the emitted radiation -- controlling it so that its so-called crests in the EUV spectrum stack up and "bundle" it into a laser beam at the end. By selecting the laser parameters and gas density correctly, Robert Klas has successfully and efficiently generated EUV radiation with laser-like parameters.

Currently, Robert Klas has tested the first potential application of his new EUV source in a laboratory setting -- lens-less microscopy, specifically for imaging within a few nanometers. "With an exposure wavelength of 13.5 nanometers, we have achieved a resolution of 18 nanometers," he said. In contrast, traditional light microscopes are usually only able to achieve a resolution of slightly less than 500 nanometers." In one experiment, the researchers achieved what's called a 100 x 100 micron field of view -- the equivalent of being able to cover the size of a football field in an image and find a coin in it.

In the future, this research is also expected to advance the energy and storage efficiency of chips, as well as many key areas such as biology and medicine. For example, using this method to image DNA about 2 nanometers in diameter, and using a microscope to create color images of the samples being studied to see inside cells.

Source: OFweek