Method and arrangement for the adjustment of characteristics of a beam bundle of high-energy radiation emitted from a plasma

An arrangement for acquiring and adjusting characteristics of a beam bundle of high-energy radiation, comprising:

• a radiation source unit and an application unit into which a beam bundle couples via an exit aperture of the radiation source unit;
• a collector optics arranged within the radiation source unit for collecting radiation and directing a convergent radiation beam bundle along an optical axis into a focus associated with the exit aperture for providing a symmetrical and homogeneous beam bundle along the optical axis in a far-field plane after the focus;
• a measuring plane for acquiring an intensity distribution of the radiation disposed perpendicularly to an optical axis in the convergent beam bundle within the radiation source unit in front of the exit aperture;
• a measuring device for spatially resolved recording of the intensity distribution of the radiation, the measuring device having a plurality of reception regions having different radii being concentric to the optical axis and having at least one movable part for acquiring the intensity distribution temporarily within the measuring plane in the convergent beam bundle;
• a control unit coupled to the measuring device for spatially resolved recording of the intensity distribution, the control unit having means for defining a coordinate system for concentrically arranging the reception regions in the measuring plane and means for generating measured quantities based on comparisons between the intensity values acquired from the reception regions and for converting the measured quantities into control variables for aligning the collector optics;
• and
• adjusting devices coupled to the control unit and arranged at the collector optics so that the collector optics can be manipulated in all degrees of freedom by means of the control variables supplied by the control unit, wherein the respective measured quantities deviate from a target quantity in excess of a predetermined tolerance.