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An overview of our recent developments, regarding “water-window” soft X-ray (SXR) microscopy based on a laser-plasma double stream gas puff target sources is presented. The work, presented herein, describes two approaches to SXR microscopy. The first one is a low spatial resolution, achromatic SXR microscopy, employing Wolter type-I objective. The second one is a nanometer spatial resolution SXR microscopy, with the use of a Fresnel zone plate objective, for imaging various objects with quasimonochromatic light, emitted from a double stream gas puff target based short wavelength source. The developments regarding both systems are presented, as well as the possible applications, for which the SXR microscope was already employed. Such compact, table-top size, laboratory type microscopy setups may be employed in the near future for complementary-like studies to other, often used, microscopy techniques.

An Nd:YAG pulsed laser was employed to irradiate a nitrogen gas-puff target. The interaction gives rise to the emission of soft X-ray (SXR) radiation in the ‘water window’ spectral range (λ= 2.3÷4.4 nm). This source was already successfully employed to perform the SXR microscopy. In this work, a Silicon Carbide (SiC) detector was used to characterize the nitrogen plasma emission in terms of gas-puff target parameters. The measurements show applicability of SiC detectors for SXR plasma characterization.

A tomographic method for three-dimensional reconstruction of low density objects is presented and discussed. The experiment was performed in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectral region using a desktop system for enhanced optical contrast and employing a compact laser–plasma EUV source, based on a double stream gas puff target. The system allows for volume reconstruction of transient gaseous objects, in this case gas jets, providing additional information for further characterization and optimization. Experimental details and reconstruction results are shown.

Imaging systems with nanometer resolution are instrumental to the development of the fast evolving field of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Decreasing the wavelength of illumination is a direct way to improve the spatial resolution in photon-based imaging systems and motivated a strong interest in short wavelength imaging techniques in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) region. In this review paper, various EUV imaging techniques, such as 2D and 3D holography, EUV microscopy using Fresnel zone plates, EUV reconstruction of computer generated hologram (CGH) and generalized Talbot self-imaging will be presented utilizing both coherent and incoherent compact laboratory EUV sources. Some of the results lead to the imaging with spatial resolution reaching 50 nm in a very short exposure time. These techniques can be used in a variety of applications from actinic mask inspection in the EUV lithography, biological imaging to mask-less lithographic processes in nanofabrication.

Reduced replicas of a periodic transparent mask were printed in the surface of a photoresist using Talbot effect. The transparent mask (or Talbot mask) was composed of an array of unit tiles distributed in a square matrix. The mask was illuminated by a coherent table top soft X-ray laser. To achieve the demagnification effect, the illumination beam was reflected in a spherical mirror. At determined positions given by the Talbot distance reduced replicas of the mask were obtained. The Talbot images produced smaller copies of the mask in the surface of a photoresist. Calculations based on Kirchhoff-Fresnel theory shows a good agreement with the experimental results. The limitations for this method are further discussed.

In this work results of investigations concerning ablation and surface modification of polymers and some other solids using a laser-plasma EUV source are presented. The plasma radiation was produced using a gas puff target and was focused with a gold-plated grazing incidence ellipsoidal collector. The ablation process was investigated using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and a quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS). The chemical changes were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Different kinds of micro- and nanostructures created in nearsurface layers of the materials were obtained. Forms of the structures depend on a particular material and the EUV exposure. In case of some polymers even a single shot was sufficient for creation of the visible changes in surface morphology. In case of inorganic solids visible changes required usually the exposure with tens or hundreds of EUV pulses. XPS investigations revealed chemical changes in near surface layers of polymers. Significant differences were revealed in the XPS spectra acquired for irradiated and not-irradiated polymers. Significant decrease of functional groups containing oxygen was indicated. Analysis of QMS spectra indicate emission of different kinds of fragments of the polymer chains including the repeating structural units. In case of some polymers only fragments of the repeating unit were detected.

Holographic 2D/3D imaging with nanometer resolution using short wavelength extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light is presented in this paper. Gabor’s holograms were recorded with a highly coherent table top EUV laser with different numerical apertures demonstrating ultimately a spatial resolution of 46+/−2 nm, comparable with the illumination wavelength, in 2D holographic imaging. Three dimensional images were obtained from a single high numerical aperture hologram recorded in a high resolution photoresist and numerically reconstructed at different image planes, allowing numerical optical sectioning with a lateral resolution ∼170 nm and depth resolution of 2.4 µm. The holograms were recorded in a high resolution photoresist and digitized with an atomic force microscope. To assess the spatial resolution of the numerical reconstructions of the holograms a correlation method was used. The algorithm allows for simultaneous estimation of the resolution and the feature size of the image under analysis.

The recent development of table top extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lasers have enabled new applications that so far were restricted to the use of large facilities. These compact sources bring now to the laboratory environment the capabilities that will allow a broader application of techniques related to nanotechnology and nanofabrication. In this paper we review the advances in the utilization of EUV lasers in nanopatterning. In particular we show results of the nanopatterning using a table-top capillary discharge laser producing 0.12-mJ laser pulses with 1.2-ns time duration at a wavelength λ = 46.9 nm. The nanopatterning was realized by interferometric lithography using a Lloyd’s mirror interferometer. Two standard photoresists were used in this work, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ). Pillars with a full width half maximum (FWHM) diameter of 60 nm and holes with FWHM diameter of 130 nm were obtained over areas in excess of 500×500 μm2.

We report the tabletop acquisition of soft x-ray holographic images of nanostructures with a spatial resolution of 46±2 nm, nearly equal to the wavelength of the illumination. Holograms of carbon nanotubes were recorded using a compact, tabletop capillary-discharge soft x-ray laser emitting at 46.9 nm in a high-numerical-aperture Gabor configuration.

We demonstrate a compact interferometric lithography nanopatterning tool based on an amplitude division interferometer (ADI) and a 46.9 nm wavelength desktop size capillary discharge laser. The system is designed to print arrays of lines, holes, and dots with sizes below 100 nm on high resolution photoresists for the fabrication of arrays of nanostructures with physical and biological applications. The future combination of this ADI with high repetition rate tabletop lasers operating at shorter wavelengths should allow the printing of arrays of sub-10 nm size features with a tabletop setup.

A method to analyze extreme ultraviolet microscopy images of nanostructures that allows for the simultaneous determination of an object's feature size and image resolution is presented. It is based on the correlation between the image and a set of templates of known resolution generated from the original image using Gaussian filters. The analysis was applied to images obtained with a Fresnel zone plate microscope that uses a 13.2 nm wavelength laser light for illumination. The object's feature size and the resolution obtained with this method are shown to be in very good agreement with independent measurements of both magnitudes.

We report the first (to our knowledge) demonstration of a tabletop, extreme UV (EUV) transmission microscope at 13.8nm wavelength with a spatial (half-pitch) resolution of 69nm. In the experiment, a compact laser–plasma EUV source based on a gas puff target is applied to illuminate an object. A multilayer ellipsoidal mirror is used to focus quasi-monochromatic EUV radiation onto the object, while a Fresnel zone plate objective forms the image. The experiment and the spatial resolution measurements, based on a knife-edge test, are described. The results might be useful for the realization of a compact high-resolution tabletop imaging systems for actinic defect characterization.

We report the demonstration of a reflection microscope that operates at 13.2 nm wavelength with a spatial resolution of 55+/-3 nm. The microscope uses illumination from a tabletop extreme ultraviolet laser to acquire aerial images of photolithography masks with a 20 s exposure time. The modulation transfer function of the optical system was characterized.

We have demonstrated near-wavelength resolution microscopy in the extreme ultraviolet. Images of 50 nm diameter nanotubes were obtained with a single ~1 ns duration pulse from a desktop-size 46.9 nm laser. We measured the modulation transfer function of the microscope for three different numerical aperture zone plate objectives, demonstrating that 54 nm half-period structures can be resolved. The combination of near-wavelength spatial resolution and high temporal resolution opens myriad opportunities in imaging, such as the ability to directly investigate dynamics of nanoscale structures.