SBIR Phase I: A Simple and Practical Solid-State 157 nm Coherent Light Source for Applications in Lithography Development

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）一期项目旨在研究简单实用的窄带宽真空紫外（VUV）激光光源的可行性，该光源可调至157 nm左右。这项工作将结合激光技术和非线性光学技术的最新进展与先前研究的频率转换方案。导波几何结构中的双共振四波混合将用于将紫外光转换为VUV。根据先前观察到的转换效率推断，该过程的整体转换效率可能增加100-1000倍，从~10 -4到接近单位效率。将用于驱动这一过程的激光系统将是小型的、全固态的。这种设备的商业潜力有望从根本上提高VUV光源相对于当前激光系统的实用性，并将立即应用于集成电路制造的157nm光刻技术的开发，以及各种其他基础科学和技术应用。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project proposes to study the feasibility of asimple and practical narrow-bandwidth vacuum ultraviolet (VUV)laser light source,tunablearound 157 nm.This work will combine recent advances in laser technology and nonlinear-optical techniques with previously-studied frequency-conversion schemes.A doubly-resonantfour-wave mixing in a guided-wave geometry will be used to convert UV light into the VUV.Extrapolation from previously observed conversion efficiencies shows that the overallconversion efficiency of this process may be increased by 100-1000x,from ~10 -4 to near-unityefficiency.The laser system that will be developed to drive this process will be small-scale andall solid-state.The commercial potential for such a device promises to radically-improve the practicality of VUV light sources over current laser systems,and will find immediate application as a tool for development of157nm lithography for manufacturing of integrated circuits,and well as in a variety of otherbasic science and technological applications.