Development of low-loss optical coatings for 157-nm lithography

In the F 2 laser lithography, it is essential to reduce the loss of the optical coatings deposited on calcium fluoride lenses. In order to make low loss optical coatings, we have developed measurement apparatus, evaluated the coatings with various analyses, and found a correlation with the optical constants. In this paper we describe the optical loss measurement apparatus and the evaluation results analyzed for either single layer coatings or multi-layer anti-reflection coatings.