Dry tin dioxide hollow microshells and extreme ultraviolet radiation induced by CO2 laser illumination

Low-density tin dioxide (SnO2) is required for radiating monochromatic extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light with low debris and high conversion efficiency from a laser. In this paper, tin dioxide nanoparticle hollow microcapsules were successfully fabricated by a layer-by-layer template technique. The obtained capsules have a rougher surface (30 nm in rms) compared to the freshly prepared polyelectrolyte capsules. Based on the X-ray diffraction (XRD) results, the tin dioxide nanoparticles well maintained their size after they were assembled on the capsules' surfaces. In order to remove the polymer template, a heat treatment was introduced, and after the heat treatment the capsule sizes shrank about 71% (the average size was from 4.9 to 3.5 mum), and the obtained capsules maintained their round shape after water evaporation. The narrowest bandwidth at the 13.5 nm emission in the EUV region was observed when the capsules were irradiated by a CO2 laser with an intensity of 2.9 x 10(10) W/cm (2).