Abstract

There has been a considerable demand on the development of a practical laser in the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) spectral region. Rare gas excimers are known to be one of the very few molecules that radiate in this spectral region. An electron beam excitation method has long been utilized to achieve the high power laser radiation in the VUV using these molecules. In addition to this excitation method, compact discharge technique has been complementarily developed to realize practical VUV lasers. Such VUV lasers would open up various application fields, such as deep UV optical lithography and advanced materials processing. We have been studying and developing several new methods to realize compact VUV light sources using various compact discharge techniques, such as pulsed gas jet discharge pumping and silent discharge excitation.

© 2001 Optical Society of America