Study of magnetically controlled plasma for efficient laser-plasma-induced EUV generation

Efficient generation of 13.5 nm light, increased conversion efficiency and output power, are extremely important for the application of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. However, little work has been done on magnetically control of plasmas in the generation of EUV sources. In this work, we computationally studied the effect of magnetic field on laser-plasma interaction, plasma dynamics, and radiation with different laser wavelengths, 1-10µm. We benchmarked existing experimental data using two-stage simulations: radiation hydrodynamics code FLASH with a tabulated equation of state and an atomic code SPECT3D. After benchmarking the code, we studied the impact of magnetic field, up to 10s of Tesla on laser driven Sn plasma. Simulations show that plasma dynamics in time are restricted depending on B-field direction, resulting in target heating to higher temperature compared to laser driven plasma without B-field as it shows isotropic expansion. Additionally, these different plasma dynamics affect EUV generation, total flux, and in-band emission in 2% bandwidth around 13.5 nm. Detailed methods and results of systematic simulations will be presented.