Catadioptric projection objective

Catadioptric projection objective for imaging a pattern arranged in an object surface of the projection objective into the image surface of the projection objective, comprising:

• a catadioptric objective part having at least one concave mirror;
• and
• a dioptric objective part, arranged optically downstream of the catadioptric objective part, in which there is situated a pupil surface near the image surface;
• wherein situated in a near zone of the pupil surface is at least one concave lens with a concave surface directed towards the pupil surface, where the near zone of the pupil surface is a region of relatively large beam diameter near the pupil surface extending on both sides of the pupil surface in an axial direction up to 1.5 times a maximum useful beam bundle diameter in the region of the pupil surface;
• wherein no lens with a strongly curved concave surface having a surface aperture k of less than 0.8 and being directed towards the image surface is situated between the pupil surface and the image surface, with k being the ratio r/D between the radius r of the concave surface and the maximum useful diameter D of the concave surface;
• and
• wherein at least two consecutive lenses made from fluoride crystal material with the same crystallographic orientation are rotated relative to one another about the optical axis such that at least a fraction of a birefringent action of one of the lenses is compensated by the rotated lens following thereupon.