Powerful and Efficient EUV Coherent Light Sources

Objective

The interest in and hence the need for coherent short-wavelength (EUV spectral range) laser sources is rapidly increasing. Potentially, such sources will allow for novel approaches in fundamental science, metrology, imaging, spectroscopy and might even enable new lithographic production techniques. One example is Atto-Science, one of the groundbreaking topics in physical science of the next decade. High harmonic generation (HHG) in noble gases is considered as the most suitable technique to generate spatially coherent EUV light. Unfortunately, the conversion efficiency of HHG is rather small. Furthermore, conventional ultra-short pulse laser sources required for HHG are limited in average power due to thermo-optical problems, therefore, the resulting EUV radiation is characterized by an extremely low number of photons per unit time (average power). Consequently, all the applications of EUV radiation suffer from the lack of powerful coherent light sources in this interesting spectral range, which results extremely long integration or processing times. Ultimately this lack of power make current EUV sources be considered as laboratory curiosities without any relevance for real world applications. The goal of the proposed project is to investigate novel methods to increase the efficiency and the average output power of HHG based EUV light sources. Of outmost importance is the development of efficient, compact and powerful (>3 kW average power) high peak power (>100 MW) ultra-short pulse (<200 fs) laser systems to drive the HHG process. Fiber based amplifiers have the potential to fulfil this parameter range in a compact und ultra-stable manner allowing the generation of EUV radiation outside a specially protected laboratory environment. In summary, the goal of the proposed project is the development of efficient and powerful tailored, meaning application-oriented, EUV light sources.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

• natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry noble gases
• engineering and technology materials engineering fibers
• natural sciences physical sciences optics laser physics
• natural sciences physical sciences theoretical physics particle physics photons
• natural sciences physical sciences optics spectroscopy

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

• EUV spectral range
• fiber based laser
• high harmonic generation
• high-field physics
• solid-state lasers
• ultra-fast lasers

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

• FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific programme: "Ideas" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

• ERC-SG-PE3 - ERC Starting Grant - Condensed matter physics

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

ERC-2009-StG
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant

Host institution

Beneficiaries (1)