Micromachining using XUV ∼ x-ray

We investigated micromachining using laser plasma XUV light that was generated by irradiating Ta targets with pulsed Nd:YAG laser light. The XUV light was focused with an ellipsoidal mirror to efficiently focus the XUV light around 10 nm. The focused XUV light was incident to surfaces of materials such as silica glass and PMMA. We found that these materials are ablated by XUV irradiation. In particular, silica glass can be ablated at rates up to 150 nm/shot, which can be controlled by the power density of the XUV light. It is remarkable that silica can be ablated smoothly with a roughness less than 1 nm after 10 shots of XUV irradiation at a rate of 50 nm/shot. We also demonstrated that nanofabrication of 50-nm wide trenches is performed. In addition, we have demonstrated that PMMA can be ablated efficiently, using the ellipsoidal mirror, which is suitable for practical use. (author)