Particle transport in plasma systems for development of EUVL mask blanks

Defect transport in development of EUVL mask blanks is an important issue for the near-term of the industry. One main issue affecting transport is how the defect may charge in the presence of plasma. In some cases, plasma may act to contain defects away from the mask surface. We show simulation results of the effect of plasma on defect transport demonstrating how the formation of plasma sheathes and a plasma potential act to confine highly negatively charged particles, such as defect particles would be.