In order to find new immersion liquids to improve the resolution of 193 nm immersion photolithography, we have attempted to discover aqueous system possessing an index of refraction greater than that of water using aqueous surfactant systems. The index of refraction (RI) of both cationic and anionic surfactant systems were examined in the presence of wide range of inorganic salts, and parameters such as size of surfactants, concentrations, and temperature were varied. The refractive index (RI) was found to be increased in the presence of both anionic and cationic surfactants compared to those of water and also increased as a function of surfactant concentration. However the refractive index tends to increase much more strongly as a function of salt concentration. In our study, a maximum RI enhancement was observed from 6.5 M CdCl 2 in 8.2 mM aqueous SDS solution. The effect of micellar properties such as the critical micelle concentration (cmc) and degree of ionization were systematically studied for aqueous SDS system in the presence of CdCl 2 . The correlation on index of refraction between empirical data and theoretical prediction were performed using the concept of molar refraction. Wavelength dependence of RI from theoretical prediction based on empirical equation was examined for various concentration of CdCl 2 system and the results are reported in the paper.Subject terms: index of refraction, immersion photolithography, ionic surfactants, 193 nm, SDS, CTAC, CdCl 2
IntroductionRecently, optical lithography has been incrementally marching toward dimensions less than 45 nm. The wavelength has been reduced to 193-nm and 157-nm lithography using F 2 laser was studied tentatively for the next generation of lithography. We have been studying the mechanism of the photodegradation that leads to darkening of polymer pellicles during exposure to 157 nm radiations in order to design new soft pellicle systems that possess acceptable characteristics for 157 nm photolithography.