Narrow band excimer or molecular fluorine laser with adjustable bandwidth
AssigneeLambda Physik AG
InventorsPeter Heist, Jürgen Kleinschmidt
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A line-narrowed excimer or molecular fluorine laser system includes a gain medium surrounded by a resonator for generating a laser beam, a discharge circuit including a plurality of electrodes for energizing the gain medium and a line narrowing unit within the resonator for narrowing the bandwidth of the laser system. The resonator includes a deformable resonator reflector. A technique for adjusting the bandwidth of the laser system includes adjusting a surface contour of the deformable resonator reflector. A desired bandwidth may be selected manually or using a processor which automatically controls the surface contour adjustment.
Claims15
An excimer or molecular fluorine laser system, comprising:
- a gain medium;
- a resonator surrounding the gain medium for generating a laser beam, said resonator including a deformable, non-dispersive reflector;
- a discharge circuit including a plurality of electrodes for energizing the gain medium;
- a line-narrowing/selection unit within the resonator for narrowing the bandwidth of the laser system;
- a detector for detecting the bandwidth of the laser system;
- and
- a processor for receiving a signal indicative of said bandwidth from said detector and controlling a surface contour of said deformable reflector to control said bandwidth in a feedback loop.
A line-narrowed excimer or molecular flourine laser system, comprising:
- a gain medium;
- a resonator surrounding the gain medium for generating a laser beam, said resonator including a deformable non-dispersive reflector;
- a discharge circuit including a plurality of electrodes for energizing the gain medium;
- a line-narrowing unit within the resonator for narrowing the bandwidth of the laser system;
- and
- a spectrometer for measuring the bandwidth of said laser beam.
A line-narrowed excimer or molecular fluorine laser system, comprising:
- a gain medium;
- a resonator surrounding the gain medium for generating a laser beam, said resonator including a deformable non-dispersive reflector;
- a discharge circuit including a plurality of electrodes for energizing the gain medium;
- a line-narrowing unit within the resonator for narrowing the bandwidth of the laser system;
- and
- a processor for automatically adjusting the bandwidth of said laser by sending a signal to adjust a surface contour of said deformable reflector.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.