Wall ablation effect on the recombination pumping of EUV laser in pinching capillary discharge

Abstract

Magnetohydrodynamic simulations of plasma evolution in nitrogen-filled alumina capillaries, taking into account the ablation of capillary walls, are reported. Time dependences of the ionization state and populations of the selected energy levels of nitrogen ions are evaluated by the kinetic code FLYCHK, used as a postprocessor. Plasma properties, including the spectral characteristics, simulated according to experiments done in different laboratories, are in good agreement with experimental results. We made some estimations of the wall evaporation, showing that capillary wall ablation may play a significant role. We show that ablation of the capillary material is a serious barrier on the way to 13 nm nitrogen laser recombination pumping by the capillary pinch.