This project deals with EUV lithography instrumentation, more specifically with plasmas occurring or generated in two chambers: the source chamber and the optics chamber. The boundary between those two chambers is a metal wall with a 6 mm hole in it to let the EUV beam pass through: the intermediate focus (IF).
After the IF, the EUV-induced plasma expands supersonically into the lower pressure optics chamber. In this project, that supersonic plasma expansion is studied by numerical simulations and experiments. Contaminations are also present in or produced by the plasma, and will be studied and mitigated by inserting additional, tailored, plasmas.