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

本小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目提出研究一种简单实用的窄带宽真空紫外（VUV）激光光源的可行性，本工作将联合收割机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相结合。波几何形状将被用于将UV光转换成VUV。从先前观察到的转换效率外推显示该过程的总转换效率可以增加100- 1000倍，从~10 - 4到接近1的效率。将开发的激光系统，以推动这一进程将是小规模和全固态的。这种设备的商业潜力承诺从根本上-与目前的激光系统相比，VUV光源的实用性得到了提高，并将立即应用于集成电路制造中157 nm光刻技术的开发，以及其他各种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.