Soft-X-Ray Projection Imaging Using a Laser Plasma Source,

The feasibility of producing small feature sizes in resists using soft x-ray projection lithography has been demonstrated. Experiments by AT and T Bell Laboratories have achieved features small as 0.05 microns using a Schwarzschild objective and 140 angstrom radiation from an undulator at the National Synchrotron Light Source. We describe here a similar imaging system in which the illumination is derived from a high-fluence laser plasma source LPS of soft x-rays instead of a synchrotron radiation source. The laser plasma source has been shown to be a useful illumination source for soft x-ray microscopy.