Patent ID: 7250621

Claim:
A method for plasma-based generation of soft x-radiation, particularly for the generation of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation, in which defined portions of a target flow that is provided in a reproducible manner are made to interact with a pulsed high-energy beam for exciting a radiation-emitting plasma, wherein the interaction results in the generation of a radiation-emitting plasma, said method further comprising the steps of: directing an additional energy beam on the target flow spatially in advance of its interaction with the high-energy beam, the target flow being acted upon by said additional energy beam with substantially weaker energy pulses compared to the high-energy beam in order to divide the target flow into a first portion and at least one second portion, wherein the target flow is excited at an interaction point within the second portion by the high-energy beam for generating a hot, radiating plasma; and generating the first portion by the target generator as a continuous target jet with low divergence and decoupling the second portion from the first portion and therefore from the target generator at least in such a way that a hydrodynamic disturbance generated in the second portion by a pulse of the high-energy beam at the interaction point is transmitted into the first portion as a negligible disturbance compared to the disturbance of the additional energy beam.