Patent ID: 6965624

Claim:
An excimer or molecular fluorine gas discharge laser system, comprising: a laser chamber containing a laser gas mixture at least molecular fluorine and a buffer gas, the molecular fluorine being particularly subject to depletion; a power supply circuit including a high voltage power supply and a pulse compression circuit; multiple electrodes connected to the power supply circuit for providing a driving voltage as a pulsed discharge to energize said laser gas mixture, the multiple electrodes including a pair of main electrodes and at least one preionization unit; a resonator including the laser chamber and line-narrowing and/or line-selection optics for generating a pulsed, narrowband laser beam at a wavelength less than 250 nm and a bandwidth less than 1 pm; a fan for circulating the gas mixture between the main electrodes at a predetermined flow rate, wherein the discharge width divided by the flow rate of said gas mixture through said discharge is less than substantially 0.5 milliseconds; a heat exchanger for controlling a temperature of the gas mixture; a gas supply unit connected to said laser chamber; a processor for controlling gaseous flow between said gas supply unit and said laser chamber, wherein said gas supply unit and said processor are configured to permit a quantity less than 7% of said halogen gas in said laser chamber to inject into said laser chamber at selected intervals; and an amplifier, wherein the narrowband laser beam generated by the resonator is directed through the amplifier for increasing the power of the beam.