Gas mixture control in a gas discharge light source

A method of operating a gas discharge light source that includes one or more gas discharge chambers, the method comprising:

• filling a gas discharge chamber with a gas mixture, the gas discharge chamber housing an energy source;
• supplying a pulsed energy to the gas mixture by activating the energy source to thereby produce a pulsed amplified light beam;
• determining one or more properties of the gas discharge chamber;
• selecting an injection scheme from among a plurality of possible injection schemes based on the determined one or more properties of the gas discharge chamber;
• and
• applying the selected injection scheme to the gas discharge chamber;
• wherein an injection scheme includes one or more parameters related to adding one or more supplemental gas mixtures to the gas discharge chamber.

A gas discharge light source comprising:

• a gas discharge system that includes one or more gas discharge chambers, each gas discharge chamber housing an energy source and containing a gas mixture that includes a gain medium;
• and
• a gas maintenance system comprising:
• a gas supply system;
• a monitoring system;
• and
• a control system coupled to the gas supply system and the monitoring system and configured to:
• provide a signal to activate each energy source to thereby produce a pulsed amplified light beam from its gas discharge chamber;
• receive information from the monitoring system and determine one or more properties of the gas discharge system based on this received information;
• select a gas maintenance scheme from among a plurality of possible schemes based on the determined one or more properties of the gas discharge system;
• and
• provide a signal to the gas supply system to thereby apply the selected gas maintenance scheme to the gas discharge system;
• wherein a gas maintenance scheme includes one or more parameters related to adding one or more supplemental gas mixtures to the gas discharge chambers of the gas discharge system.