Patent ID: 7742147

Claim:
An exposure apparatus which has a function of measuring a position of a stage configured to hold a substrate using a laser interferometer and exposes the substrate through an original and an optical element opposite to the substrate, with a gap between the optical element and the substrate filled with a liquid, said apparatus comprising: a first supply nozzle arranged around the optical element and configured to supply the liquid to the gap; a first recovery nozzle arranged around said first supply nozzle and configured to recover the liquid from the gap; a second supply nozzle configured to supply a gas outside said first recovery nozzle; a controller configured to control an amount of the liquid supplied from said first supply nozzle and an amount of the liquid and gas recovered from said first recovery nozzle; and a wall portion arranged around the optical element and substantially parallel to a surface of the substrate, wherein letting Q 1 be an amount of the liquid supplied from said first supply nozzle and Q 2 be a sum of the amount of the liquid and gas recovered from said first recovery nozzle, said controller controls operation to satisfy a relationship Q 1 <Q 2 and to form a current of the gas from said second supply nozzle to said first recovery nozzle, and said second supply nozzle is arranged at the stage, so as to surround the substrate, to form a gas curtain outside said first recovery nozzle by supplying the gas to said wall portion and to partition the gap containing a vapor produced from the liquid and a space around the gap with the gas curtain and said wall portion.