Patent ID: 7589039

Claim:
A synthetic silica glass material, the synthetic silica glass material consisting essentially of synthetic silica glass, H 2 , and OH, wherein the synthetic silica glass optical material is loaded with H 2 at a temperature of less than 800° C., and wherein H 2 is present in a concentration greater than 1×10 16 molecules/cm 3 and less than 1×10 19 molecules/cm 3 , and being capable of use in the light path of lithographic irradiation at below about 300 nm in lithographic devices, the synthetic silica glass material having less than about 1 nm/cm of polarization-induced birefringence at the center of the uniformly exposed area of the glass measured at about 633 nm after being subjected to 5×10 9 pulses of a linearly polarized pulsed laser beam at about 193 nm having a fluence of about 40 μJ·cm −2 ·pulse −1 and a pulse length of about 25 ns.