ArF and KrF excimer laser apparatus and fluorine laser apparatus for lithography

ArF and KrF excimer laser apparatus and fluorine laser apparatus for lithography, each comprising:

• a laser chamber;
• a magnetic pulse compression circuit;
• a pair of laser discharge electrodes connected to output terminals of said magnetic pulse compression circuit and disposed in said laser chamber;
• and
• a peaking capacitor connected in parallel to said pair of laser discharge electrodes;
• wherein, when a capacity of a capacitor in a final stage of said magnetic pulse compression circuit is denoted by Cn (n is the number of stages of the magnetic pulse compression circuit);
• a capacity of the peaking capacitor is denoted by Cp;
• an inductance of a first circuit loop formed by the capacitor in the final stage and the laser discharge electrodes is denoted by Ln;
• and an inductance of a second circuit loop formed by the peaking capacitor and the laser discharge electrodes is denoted by Lp;
• a relationship between a period Tn of a waveform of an oscillating current flowing in the first circuit loop, i.e. Tn=2π{square root over ( )}(Ln×Cn), and a period Tp of a waveform of an oscillating current flowing in the second circuit loop, i.e. Tp=2π{square root over ( )}(Lp×Cp), satisfies the following condition:
• 3Tp<Tn<5Tp
• and the period Tn satisfies the following condition:
• Tn<250 ns
• whereby a laser oscillating operation is performed by at least 1.5 cycles of an oscillating current flowing between the laser discharge electrodes.