Carl Zeiss Smt Gmbh

Konstantin Forcht

Horst Feldermann

Vitaliy Shklover

Jeffrey Erxmeyer

Johannes Kraus

Michael Schall

Oliver Gloeckl

Ute Heinemeyer

Christoph Zaczek

Alexandra Pazidis

Olaf Rogalsky

Irene Ament

Dirk Doering

Frank Weigl

A catadioptric lens includes at least two optical elements arranged along an optical axis. Both optical elements are configured as a mirror having a substrate and a highly reflective coating applied to an interface of the substrate. The highly reflective coating extends from the interface of the substrate along a surface normal. At least one of the highly reflective coatings has one or a plurality of layers. The optical total layer thickness of the one layer of the plurality of layers increases radially from the inner area outward.

Catadioptric lens and optical system comprising such a lens

Reflective optical element with extended service life for VUV wavelengths includes a substrate () and a metal layer () thereon. At least one metal fluoride layer () on the metal layer faces away from the substrate and at least one oxide layer () on the metal fluoride layer faces away from the substrate. The thicknesses of the layers on the metal layer facing away from the substrate are selected so that the electrical field of a standing wave, formed when a relevant wavelength is reflected, has a minimum in the region of the oxide layer. In addition, the relevant wavelength is selected so that, from a minimum VUV wavelength range to the relevant wavelengths, the integral over the extinction coefficients of the material of the at least one oxide layer is between 15% and 47% of the corresponding integral from the minimum wavelengths to a maximum wavelength.

Reflective optical element

Proposed for cleaning optical elements for the ultraviolet wavelength range having at least one metal-containing layer on a surface is a process that includes: &#x2014;supplying activated hydrogen to the surface having the metal-containing layer; subsequently supplying inert gas having an H2O volume fraction of below 5 ppm, preferably below 1 ppm, particularly preferably below 0.2 ppm. To this end, an optical system () includes a housing (), a supply line () of activated hydrogen, a supply line () of inert gas having an HO volume fraction of below 5 ppm and a discharge line () for pumping gas out of the housing.

Process for cleaning optical elements for the ultraviolet wavelength range

A reflective optical element, in particular for a DUV or VUV operating wavelength range, includes a substrate, a dielectric layer system and a metallic coating between the substrate and the dielectric layer system. The dielectric layer system () includes a layer (L) of material having a lower refractive index nat the operating wavelength, a layer (H) of material having a higher refractive index nat the operating wavelength and a layer (M) of material having a refractive index nat the operating wavelength, where n&#x3c;n&#x3c;n. The layer (M) is arranged at at least one transition from a layer (L) to a layer (H) and/or from a layer (H) to a layer (L). The dielectric layer system has a four-layer sequence of (LMHM)m or (HMLM)m, where m is equal to the number of four-layer sequences in the dielectric layer system.

In order to make possible both good laser resistance and good antireflection properties, an optical element, in particular for UV lithography, comprising a substrate and a coating on the substrate having at least four layers, is proposed, wherein

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Aalen, Germany

Konstantin Forcht