Patent ID: 7906446

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 material is loaded with H 2 at a temperature of less than 800° C. and has a H 2 concentration greater than 1×10 17 molecules/cm 3 and less than about 5×10 17 molecules/cm 3 , wherein the synthetic silica glass material has less than about 1 nm/cm of polarization-induced birefringence at the center of a uniformly exposed area of the synthetic silica glass, and wherein the polarization-induced birefringence is measured at about 633 nm after subjecting the synthetic silica glass 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.