Characterization of laser-produced gas-puff plasmas for soft x-ray projection lithography

We characterize a laser produced gas puff plasma for soft x- ray generation. Strong emissions at 11.4 nm wavelength region was observed, using krypton and xenon gas puff targets irradiated by a 0.7J/8ns Nd:YAG laser. Space resolved x-ray spectra measurement indicated that the source size depends on the Rayleigh length and the gas density profile. A channeling effect for larger tare size which is connected with the thermal focusing has been observed.