Early-time hydrodynamic response of a tin droplet driven by laser-produced plasma

Javier Hernandez-Rueda, Bo Liu, Diko J. Hemminga, Yahia Mostafa, Randy A. Meijer, Dmitry Kurilovich, Mikhail Basko, Hanneke Gelderblom, John Sheil, Oscar O. Versolato*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

We experimentally and numerically investigate the early-time hydrodynamic response of tin microdroplets driven by a ns-laser-induced plasma. Experimentally, we use stroboscopic microscopy to record the laser-induced dynamics of liquid tin droplets and determine the propulsion speed (U) and initial radial expansion rate (Ṙ0). The ratio of these two quantities is a key parameter to be optimized for applications in nanolithography, where laser-impacted tin droplets serve as targets for generating extreme ultraviolet light. We explore a large parameter space to investigate the influence of the tin droplet diameter, laser beam diameter, and laser energy on the Ṙ0/U ratio. We find good agreement when comparing the experimentally obtained U and Ṙ0 values to those obtained by detailed radiation-hydrodynamic simulations using RALEF-2D. From the validated simulations, we extract the spatial distribution of the plasma-driven pressure impulse at the droplet-plasma interface to quantify its influence on the partitioning of kinetic energy channeled into propulsion or deformation. Our findings demonstrate that the width of the pressure impulse is the sole pertinent parameter for extracting the kinetic energy partitioning, which ultimately determines the late-time target morphology. We find good agreement between our full radiation-hydrodynamic modeling and a generalized analytical fluid-dynamics model [H. Gelderblom, J. Fluid Mech. 794, 676 (2016)0022-112010.1017/jfm.2016.182]. These findings can be used to optimize the kinetic energy partition and tailor the features of tin targets for nanolithography.

Original languageEnglish
Article number013142
Pages (from-to)1-14
Number of pages14
JournalPhysical Review Research
Volume4
Issue number1
Early online date22 Feb 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors thank Haining Wang, Michael Purvis, Igor Fomenkov, Wim van der Zande, Wim Ubachs, Ronnie Hoekstra, Ruben Schupp, and Lucas Poirier for fruitful discussions. This work has been carried out at the Advanced Research Center for Nanolithography (ARCNL), a public-private partnership of the University of Amsterdam (UvA), the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU), the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), and the semiconductor equipment manufacturer ASML. This project has received funding from European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant No. 802648 and is part of the VIDI research program with Project No. 15697, which is financed by NWO. Part of this work was carried out on the Dutch national e-infrastructure with the support of SURF Cooperative.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 authors. Published by the American Physical Society.

Funding

The authors thank Haining Wang, Michael Purvis, Igor Fomenkov, Wim van der Zande, Wim Ubachs, Ronnie Hoekstra, Ruben Schupp, and Lucas Poirier for fruitful discussions. This work has been carried out at the Advanced Research Center for Nanolithography (ARCNL), a public-private partnership of the University of Amsterdam (UvA), the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU), the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), and the semiconductor equipment manufacturer ASML. This project has received funding from European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant No. 802648 and is part of the VIDI research program with Project No. 15697, which is financed by NWO. Part of this work was carried out on the Dutch national e-infrastructure with the support of SURF Cooperative.

FundersFunder number
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme802648
European Research Council15697
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Early-time hydrodynamic response of a tin droplet driven by laser-produced plasma'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this