In this work,we investigated the influence of air gas pressures on the expansion features of nanosecond laser ablated aluminum plasma in the absence and presence of a nonuniform magnetic field using fast photography.A particular emphasis was given to the plume dynamics(shape,size) with the combined effects of ambient gas pressures and an external magnetic field.Free expansion,sharpening effect,and hemi-spherical structures of the aluminum plasma were observed without a magnetic field under different gas pressures.Analysis of the resulting plume images with the combined effects of air gas pressures and a magnetic field show significant changes,such as plume splitting,elliptical geometry changes,radial expansion,and plume confinement.Furthermore,the total size of the plasma plume with a magnetic field was measured to be smaller than the plasma plume without a magnetic field at several background pressures.
The propagation of a plasma shock wave generated from an Al target surface ablated by a nanosecond Nd:YAG laser operating at 355 nm in air is investigated at the different focusing positions of the laser beam by using a time-resolved shadowgraph imaging technique. The results show that in the case of a target surface set at the off-focus position, the condition of the focal point behind or in front of the target surface greatly influences the evolution of an Al plasma shock wave, and an ionization channel forms in the case of the focal point set in front of the target surface. Moreover, it is found that the shadowgraph with the evolution time around 100 ns shows that a protrusion appears at the front tip of the shock wave if the focal point is at the target surface. In addition, the calculated results of the expanding velocity of the shock wave front, the mass density, and pressure just behind the shock wave front are presented based on the shadowgraphs.
For the next-generation beyond extreme ultraviolet lithography(EUVL) sources, gadolinium(Gd) plasma with emission wavelength at 6.7 nm seems to be the leading candidate. Similar to the Sn target 13.5 nm light source, ion debris mitigation is one of the most important tasks in the laser-produced Gd plasma EUV source development. In this paper,a dual-laser-pulse scheme, which uses a low energy pulse to produce a pre-plasma and a main pulse after a time delay to shoot the pre-plasma, is employed to mitigate the energetic ion generation from the source. Optimal conditions(such as pre-pulse energy and wavelength, and the time delay between the pre-pulse and the main pulse for mitigating the ion energy) are experimentally obtained, and with the optimal conditions, the peak of the ion energy is found to be reduced to1/18 of that of a single laser pulse case. Moreover, the combined effect by applying ambient gas to the dual-pulse scheme for ion debris mitigation is demonstrated, and the result shows that the yield of Gd ions is further reduced to around 1/9 of the value for the case with dual laser pulses.
In this work,we investigated the plasma morphology induced by a Nd:YAG laser with the aim of improving the understanding of the formation and dynamics of the plasma in two cases,with and without a magnetic field.Single laser pulse production of a plasma in the absence and presence of a magnetic field was performed with an aluminum target in air.A fast photography technique was employed to obtain information about the expansion dynamics and confinement of the aluminum plasma in each case.The generation of the laser plasma was allowed to expand at two locations with different magnetic field strengths,which correspond to the strength 0.58 T in the center of two magnetic poles and 0.83 T at a distance of 4 mm from the upper pole(N).The plume showed lateral confinement at longer delays when the target was placed at the center of the two poles.When the target was placed at a distance of 4 mm from the upper pole it was observed that the plume was divided into two lobes at the initial stage and traveled towards the center of the magnetic field with further elapse of time.
