KLA Corporation
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PUMPING LASER SUSTAINED PLASMA WITH AN ILLUMINATION SOURCE HAVING MODIFIED PUPIL POWER DISTRIBUTION

Abstract:

A system for generating pump illumination for laser sustained plasma (LSP) is disclosed. The system may include an illumination source configured to output a pump beam, one or more focusing optics, and one or more beam shapers configured to reshape the pump beam to provide a shaped pupil power distribution at an illumination pupil plane of the one or more focusing optics. The shaped pupil power distribution may include at least one of a flat-top distribution or an inverted distribution with a central local intensity minimum. Further, the one or more focusing optics may receive the pump beam from the one or more beam shapers and direct the pump beam to a plasma-forming material, whereby the pump beam at least one of forms or maintains a plasma that emits broadband illumination.