Mitigation of ion and particulate emission from laser-produced plasmas used for extreme ultraviolet lithography

► We measured velocity, size, charge, momentum, spectral energy, space distribution of debris emitted by a laser-plasma source. ► Our debris mitigation systems allows reduction factors ∼800 for atoms and nm-size clusters and ∼1600 for particles >500 nm. ► Our debris mitigation system consists of buffer gas and a mechanical device, the latter stops debris slowed-down by the gas. ► We note the formation of sub-micrometric clusters due to a homogeneous nucleation-like mechanism.