(Press-News.org) WASHINGTON, D.C. Oct. 4, 2013 -- When you heat a tiny droplet of liquid tin with a laser, plasma forms on the surface of the droplet and produces extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light, which has a higher frequency and greater energy than normal ultraviolet.
Now, for the first time, researchers have mapped this EUV emission and developed a theoretical model that explains how the emission depends on the three-dimensional shape of the plasma. In doing so, they found a previously untapped source of EUV light, which could be useful for various applications including semiconductor lithography, the process used to make integrated circuits.
In the experiments, Andrea Giovannini and Reza Abhari from ETH-Zurich in Switzerland blasted a 30-micron-diameter droplet of tin with a high-powered laser 6,000 times a second. They measured the spatial distribution of the resulting EUV emission and found that 30 percent of it came from behind the region of the droplet that was struck by the laser. According to their model, this unexpected distribution was due to the fact that the plasma partially surrounding the droplet was elongated in the direction of the laser pulse.
Devices that produce narrow beams of EUV for purposes like in semiconductor lithography use mirrors to focus the emission. But, until now, no one knew to collect the EUV light radiating from behind the droplet.
Thanks to this work, Giovannini said, future devices can exploit this previously unknown source of EUV emission. The new experiments can also inform the development of EUV devices by showing where mirrors should be placed around a droplet in order to collect and focus as much EUV light as possible.
The researchers describe their experiments in the Journal of Applied Physics, which is produced by AIP Publishing.
INFORMATION:
The paper, "Three-dimensional extreme ultraviolet emission from a droplet-based laser-produced plasma" by Andrea Z. Giovannini and Reza S. Abhari appears in the Journal of Applied Physics. See: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4815955
ABOUT THE JOURNAL
Journal of Applied Physics is an influential international journal publishing significant new experimental and theoretical results of applied physics research. See: http://jap.aip.org
Ultraviolet light to the extreme
Experiments may help in the design of new sources of extreme ultraviolet light for making integrated circuits with next generation lithography
2013-10-04
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
NSF awards $12 million to SDSC to deploy 'Comet' supercomputer
2013-10-04
The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, has been awarded a $12-million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to deploy Comet, a new petascale supercomputer designed to transform advanced scientific computing by expanding access and capacity among traditional as well as non-traditional research domains. Comet will be capable of an overall peak performance of nearly two petaflops, or two quadrillion operations per second.
"Supercomputers such as Comet and our data-intensive Gordon system are helping to fulfill the ...
New kind of microscope uses neutrons
2013-10-04
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Researchers at MIT, working with partners at NASA, have developed a new concept for a microscope that would use neutrons — subatomic particles with no electrical charge — instead of beams of light or electrons to create high-resolution images.
Among other features, neutron-based instruments have the ability to probe inside metal objects — such as fuel cells, batteries, and engines, even when in use — to learn details of their internal structure. Neutron instruments are also uniquely sensitive to magnetic properties and to lighter elements that are important ...
Reading literary fiction improves 'mind-reading' skills
2013-10-04
NEW YORK (October 3, 2013)—Heated debates about the quantifiable value of arts and literature are a common feature of American social discourse. Now, two researchers from The New School for Social Research have published a paper in Science demonstrating that reading literary fiction enhances a set of skills and thought processes fundamental to complex social relationships—and functional societies.
Ph.D. candidate David Comer Kidd and his advisor, professor of psychology Emanuele Castano performed five experiments to measure the effect of reading literary fiction on participants' ...
Analysis of little-explored regions of genome reveals dozens of potential cancer triggers
2013-10-04
A massive data analysis of natural genetic variants in humans and variants in cancer tumors has implicated dozens of mutations in the development of breast and prostate cancer, a Yale-led team has found.
The newly discovered mutations are in regions of DNA that do not code for proteins but instead influence activity of other genes. These areas represent an unexplored world that will allow researchers and doctors to gain new insight into the causes and treatment of cancer, said the scientists.
"This allows us to take a systematic approach to cancer genomics," said Mark ...
A question of style
2013-10-04
This news release is available in German. Most molecules occur in several shapes, which may behave very differently. Using a sorting machine for molecules, a German–Swiss research team can now for the first time directly measure the various reaction rates of different forms of the same compound. The team, led by DESY scientist Prof. Jochen Küpper from the Hamburg Center for Free-Electron Laser Science CFEL and Prof. Stefan Willitsch from the University of Basel, presents its work in the US journal "Science". CFEL is a collaboration of DESY, the University of Hamburg ...
NIST physicists 'entangle' microscopic drum's beat with electrical signals
2013-10-04
BOULDER, Colo -- Extending evidence of quantum behavior farther into the large-scale world of everyday life, physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have "entangled"—linked the properties of—a microscopic mechanical drum with electrical signals.
The results confirm that NIST's micro-drum could be used as a quantum memory in future quantum computers, which would harness the rules of quantum physics to solve important problems that are intractable today. The work also marks the first-ever entanglement of a macroscopic oscillator, expanding ...
Study makes important step-forward in mission to tackle parasitic worm infections
2013-10-04
Researchers from The Manchester Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research (MCCIR), University of Manchester have made an important step forward in finding a potential treatment for an infection that affects over a billion people worldwide.
Gastrointestinal parasitic infections, which are worm infections in the intestine, affect nearly one quarter of the world population and have been heavily linked with poverty in poorer regions.
They normally result in a chronic, long-lived infection associated with poor quality of life and health problems.
A team led by Dr Mark ...
Facebook and Twitter may yield clues to preventing the spread of disease
2013-10-04
WATERLOO, Ont. (Thursday, October 3, 2013) -- Facebook and Twitter could provide vital clues to control infectious diseases by using mathematical models to understand how we respond socially to biological contagions.
Cold and flu season prompts society to find ways to prevent the spread of disease though measures like vaccination all the way through to covering our mouths when we cough and staying in bed. These social responses are much more difficult to predict than the way biological contagion will evolve, but new methods are being developed to do just that.
Published ...
BMC pediatricians warn that cuts to SNAP program will harm children
2013-10-04
(Boston)--In a commentary in this week's issue of Lancet, pediatricians from Boston Medical Center (BMC) call the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly the Food Stamp Program), one of America's most cost-effective and successful public health programs in the country. According to the authors, not only does it make life much better for children and families, it also saves society money. Unfortunately they also point out that despite convincing evidence of the beneficial effects of SNAP on child health, legislators have targeted SNAP for cuts as they struggle ...
Neglect of 'science communication environment' puts vaccine acceptance at risk
2013-10-04
The biggest threat to the contribution that childhood vaccines make to societal well-being doesn't come from deficits in public comprehension, distrust of science, or misinformation campaigns, but rather from the failure of governmental and other institutions to use evidence-based strategies to anticipate and avoid recurring threats to the science communication environment—the myriad everyday channels through which the public becomes apprised of decision-relevant science.
This is the thesis of an article published this week in Science magazine by Dan M. Kahan, Elizabeth ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Bringing modern science to vitamin biology: Isha Jain wins NIH Transformative Research Award
University of Houston scientists learn that rare bacterium ‘plays dead’ to survive
Introduced animals change how island plants spread, new global study finds
Mayo Clinic researchers discover ‘traffic controller’ protein that protects DNA, and may help kill cancer cells
Protein sidekick exhibits dual roles in stress granule assembly and disassembly
New hope for MS
Kennesaw State professor receives grant to study cancer origins
Pain and antidepressant drug combo linked to increased seizure risk in older adults
Cancer researchers shape new strategies for immunotherapy
Physical exercise can ‘train’ the immune system
Calm red brocket deer can learn to "Come" and other commands - but the flightiest, most restless individuals struggle
China, the world's largest tea producer, is predicted to experience increases in land suitable for tea-growing under climate change, with the overall range shifting northwards, per AI modeling study
Composing crews for Mars missions
Early humans butchered elephants using small tools and made big tools from their bones
1,000-year-old gut microbiome revealed for young man who lived in pre-Hispanic Mexico
Bears and pandas in captivity develop significantly different gut microbiomes compared to their wild counterparts, and giant pandas in particular have less diverse microbiomes than their wild counterp
Prenatal and postnatal support apps might not work
Dancing dust devils trace raging winds on Mars
Raging winds on Mars
Real-time biopsies uncover hidden response to glioblastoma therapy
Repeated brain tumor sampling uncovers treatment response in patients with glioblastoma
Novel immunotherapy combination destroys colorectal liver metastases
Farmed totoaba could curb poaching
Avalanches: user-carried safety device increases survival time fivefold
It’s all in your head: Select neurons in the brainstem may hold the key to treating chronic pain
Time-restricted eating can boost athletes' health and performance
Burning issue: study finds fire a friend to some bees, a foe to others
Insights from 15 years of collaborative microbiome research with Indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon
Designing polymers for use in next-generation bioelectronics
Losing Nemo: Almost all aquarium fish in the US are caught in the wild
[Press-News.org] Ultraviolet light to the extremeExperiments may help in the design of new sources of extreme ultraviolet light for making integrated circuits with next generation lithography