Extreme ultraviolet(EUV)lithography is crucial for advancing semiconductor manufacturing;however,current EUV light sources,such as laser-produced plasma(LPP),have significant limitations,including low energy-conversio...Extreme ultraviolet(EUV)lithography is crucial for advancing semiconductor manufacturing;however,current EUV light sources,such as laser-produced plasma(LPP),have significant limitations,including low energy-conversion efficiency and debris contamination.Various schemes,including optical free-electron laser undulators,have been studied to generate coherent EUV light.However,optical undulators suffer from limited focal lengths,which pose a significant challenge to achieving a higher gain.In this study,a novel approach is proposed that employs a stretched off-axis paraboloid(sOAP)mirror,thus extending the focus distance to the centimeter range while achieving a well-controlled periodic light field.This enables high-intensity 92-eV EUV sources to exceed 1016/s,as demonstrated in the simulations.The proposed setup provides an efficient and powerful solution for advanced applications including semiconductor lithography.展开更多
To detect radioactive substances with low activity levels,an anticoincidence detector and a high-purity germanium(HPGe)detector are typically used simultaneously to suppress Compton scattering background,thereby resul...To detect radioactive substances with low activity levels,an anticoincidence detector and a high-purity germanium(HPGe)detector are typically used simultaneously to suppress Compton scattering background,thereby resulting in an extremely low detection limit and improving the measurement accuracy.However,the complex and expensive hardware required does not facilitate the application or promotion of this method.Thus,a method is proposed in this study to discriminate the digital waveform of pulse signals output using an HPGe detector,whereby Compton scattering background is suppressed and a low minimum detectable activity(MDA)is achieved without using an expensive and complex anticoincidence detector and device.The electric-field-strength and energy-deposition distributions of the detector are simulated to determine the relationship between pulse shape and energy-deposition location,as well as the characteristics of energy-deposition distributions for fulland partial-energy deposition events.This relationship is used to develop a pulse-shape-discrimination algorithm based on an artificial neural network for pulse-feature identification.To accurately determine the relationship between the deposited energy of gamma(γ)rays in the detector and the deposition location,we extract four shape parameters from the pulse signals output by the detector.Machine learning is used to input the four shape parameters into the detector.Subsequently,the pulse signals are identified and classified to discriminate between partial-and full-energy deposition events.Some partial-energy deposition events are removed to suppress Compton scattering.The proposed method effectively decreases the MDA of an HPGeγ-energy dispersive spectrometer.Test results show that the Compton suppression factors for energy spectra obtained from measurements on ^(152)Eu,^(137)Cs,and ^(60)Co radioactive sources are 1.13(344 keV),1.11(662 keV),and 1.08(1332 keV),respectively,and that the corresponding MDAs are 1.4%,5.3%,and 21.6%lower,respectively.展开更多
Purpose To propose a method for simultaneous fluorescence and Compton scattering computed tomography by using linearly polarized X-rays.Methods Monte Carlo simulations were adopted to demonstrate the feasibility of th...Purpose To propose a method for simultaneous fluorescence and Compton scattering computed tomography by using linearly polarized X-rays.Methods Monte Carlo simulations were adopted to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method.In the simulations,the phantom is a polytetrafluoroethylene cylinder inside which are cylindrical columns containing aluminum,water,and gold(Au)-loaded water solutions with Au concentrations ranging between 0.5 and 4.0 wt%,and a parallel-hole collimator imaging geometry was adopted.The light source was modeled based on a Thomson scattering X-ray source.The phantom images for both imaging modalities were reconstructed using a maximumlikelihood expectation maximization algorithm.Results Both the X-ray fluorescence computed tomography(XFCT)and Compton scattering computed tomography(CSCT)images of the phantom were accurately reconstructed.A similar attenuation contrast problem for the different cylindrical columns in the phantom can be resolved in the XFCT and CSCT images.The interplay between XFCT and CSCT was analyzed,and the contrast-to-noise ratio(CNR)of the reconstruction was improved by correcting for the mutual influence between the two imaging modalities.Compared with K-edge subtraction imaging,XFCT exhibits a CNR advantage for the phantom.Conclusion Simultaneous XFCT and CSCT can be realized by using linearly polarized X-rays.The synergy between the two imaging modalities would have an important application in cancer radiation therapy.展开更多
The Planck constant is considered one of the most important universal constants of physics, and despite all we know much about it, the physical nature of it has not been fully understood. Further investigation and new...The Planck constant is considered one of the most important universal constants of physics, and despite all we know much about it, the physical nature of it has not been fully understood. Further investigation and new perspectives on the Planck constant should therefore be of interest. We demonstrate that the Planck constant also can be directly linked to the Compton frequency of one, which again is divided by the Compton frequency in one kg. If this is right, it means also the Planck constant is linked to quantization of matter, not only energy. However, as we will show the frequency of one when expressed in relation to kg will be observational time dependent. This means the missing mass gap surprisingly both is equal to the Planck mass, which is larger than any known particle and also it is linked to a very small mass that again is equal to what has been suggested as the photon mass in the existing literature. This new view could be an important step forward in understanding the physical nature of the Planck constant as well as the mass gap and even the rest mass of a photon.展开更多
基金supported in part by the National Key R&D Program of China(No.2023YFA1606900)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC)(Nos.12235003 and 12447106).
文摘Extreme ultraviolet(EUV)lithography is crucial for advancing semiconductor manufacturing;however,current EUV light sources,such as laser-produced plasma(LPP),have significant limitations,including low energy-conversion efficiency and debris contamination.Various schemes,including optical free-electron laser undulators,have been studied to generate coherent EUV light.However,optical undulators suffer from limited focal lengths,which pose a significant challenge to achieving a higher gain.In this study,a novel approach is proposed that employs a stretched off-axis paraboloid(sOAP)mirror,thus extending the focus distance to the centimeter range while achieving a well-controlled periodic light field.This enables high-intensity 92-eV EUV sources to exceed 1016/s,as demonstrated in the simulations.The proposed setup provides an efficient and powerful solution for advanced applications including semiconductor lithography.
基金This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China(Nos.2022YFF0709503,2022YFB1902700,2017YFC0602101)the Key Research and Development Program of Sichuan province(No.2023YFG0347)the Key Research and Development Program of Sichuan province(No.2020ZDZX0007).
文摘To detect radioactive substances with low activity levels,an anticoincidence detector and a high-purity germanium(HPGe)detector are typically used simultaneously to suppress Compton scattering background,thereby resulting in an extremely low detection limit and improving the measurement accuracy.However,the complex and expensive hardware required does not facilitate the application or promotion of this method.Thus,a method is proposed in this study to discriminate the digital waveform of pulse signals output using an HPGe detector,whereby Compton scattering background is suppressed and a low minimum detectable activity(MDA)is achieved without using an expensive and complex anticoincidence detector and device.The electric-field-strength and energy-deposition distributions of the detector are simulated to determine the relationship between pulse shape and energy-deposition location,as well as the characteristics of energy-deposition distributions for fulland partial-energy deposition events.This relationship is used to develop a pulse-shape-discrimination algorithm based on an artificial neural network for pulse-feature identification.To accurately determine the relationship between the deposited energy of gamma(γ)rays in the detector and the deposition location,we extract four shape parameters from the pulse signals output by the detector.Machine learning is used to input the four shape parameters into the detector.Subsequently,the pulse signals are identified and classified to discriminate between partial-and full-energy deposition events.Some partial-energy deposition events are removed to suppress Compton scattering.The proposed method effectively decreases the MDA of an HPGeγ-energy dispersive spectrometer.Test results show that the Compton suppression factors for energy spectra obtained from measurements on ^(152)Eu,^(137)Cs,and ^(60)Co radioactive sources are 1.13(344 keV),1.11(662 keV),and 1.08(1332 keV),respectively,and that the corresponding MDAs are 1.4%,5.3%,and 21.6%lower,respectively.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.12375157,12027902,and 11905011)。
文摘Purpose To propose a method for simultaneous fluorescence and Compton scattering computed tomography by using linearly polarized X-rays.Methods Monte Carlo simulations were adopted to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method.In the simulations,the phantom is a polytetrafluoroethylene cylinder inside which are cylindrical columns containing aluminum,water,and gold(Au)-loaded water solutions with Au concentrations ranging between 0.5 and 4.0 wt%,and a parallel-hole collimator imaging geometry was adopted.The light source was modeled based on a Thomson scattering X-ray source.The phantom images for both imaging modalities were reconstructed using a maximumlikelihood expectation maximization algorithm.Results Both the X-ray fluorescence computed tomography(XFCT)and Compton scattering computed tomography(CSCT)images of the phantom were accurately reconstructed.A similar attenuation contrast problem for the different cylindrical columns in the phantom can be resolved in the XFCT and CSCT images.The interplay between XFCT and CSCT was analyzed,and the contrast-to-noise ratio(CNR)of the reconstruction was improved by correcting for the mutual influence between the two imaging modalities.Compared with K-edge subtraction imaging,XFCT exhibits a CNR advantage for the phantom.Conclusion Simultaneous XFCT and CSCT can be realized by using linearly polarized X-rays.The synergy between the two imaging modalities would have an important application in cancer radiation therapy.
文摘The Planck constant is considered one of the most important universal constants of physics, and despite all we know much about it, the physical nature of it has not been fully understood. Further investigation and new perspectives on the Planck constant should therefore be of interest. We demonstrate that the Planck constant also can be directly linked to the Compton frequency of one, which again is divided by the Compton frequency in one kg. If this is right, it means also the Planck constant is linked to quantization of matter, not only energy. However, as we will show the frequency of one when expressed in relation to kg will be observational time dependent. This means the missing mass gap surprisingly both is equal to the Planck mass, which is larger than any known particle and also it is linked to a very small mass that again is equal to what has been suggested as the photon mass in the existing literature. This new view could be an important step forward in understanding the physical nature of the Planck constant as well as the mass gap and even the rest mass of a photon.
