Enhanced Damage Resistance of Mo/Si Multilayer Mirror with Carbon Barrier Layers under Intense Nanosecond EUV Irradiation.

Yun, Chao; Li, Shuhui; Hu, Yinzhuo; Liu, Xiangyue; Hu, Zhanglin; Xu, Danqiao; Zhang, Zhe; Huang, Qiushi et al. · Nano Lett · 2025

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The enhancement of damage-resistance capabilities has long been pursued for the development of multilayer mirrors in the field of extreme ultraviolet lithography. Here, single-shot damage experiments were conducted on periodic Mo/Si and Mo/C/Si/C multilayers using nanosecond 13.5 nm EUV radiation. It is revealed that the incorporation of carbon barrier layers significantly enhances the single-shot damage threshold of Mo/Si by about 46%. The crater-like and bump-like damages caused by compaction and expansion are, respectively, observed for Mo/Si and Mo/C/Si/C multilayers. According to characterization results, different damage mechanisms for these two samples have been identified, which are the diffusion reaction for the Mo/Si multilayer and the nonuniform graphitization for the Mo/C/Si/C multilayer. The nonuniform graphitization mechanism is further illustrated by molecular dynamics simulations. Based on the measured multilayer structure, the optical properties of the damaged Mo/C/Si/C multilayer were evaluated at a fluence of 2.68 J/cm<sup>2</sup> and found to be maintained at a high level.