Patent ID: 7003012

Claim:
A method of operating a gas discharge laser comprising: utilizing a laser chamber containing a laser gas, providing two elongated electrode elements defining a cathode and an anode, each electrode having a gas discharge region, said electrodes being disposed within said laser chamber and said gas discharge region of said anode being covered with a porous insulating layer, having a porosity sufficient to effectively permit electrons to flow freely to and from the metal surface of said anode while effectively limiting substantial laser-gas-constituent ion interaction with said anode, utilizing a pulse power system to provide electrical pulses at rates in excess of 1000 pulses per second to produce electric discharges, said electric discharges occurring in said gas discharge regions on said anode and on said cathode and producing a laser gas discharge intermediate said two electrodes, circulating said laser gas between said two electrodes sufficiently to remove substantially all debris produced by a laser gas discharge prior to a next subsequent laser gas discharge when operating at pulse rates in excess of 1000 pulses per second, and using a heat exchanger to remove heat from said last gas produced by said blower system and said discharge.