Heraeus Quarzglas Gmbh & Co Kg

Denis Kassube

Bodo Kuehn

Steffen Kaiser

Stephan Ochs

Kerstin Merget

To optimize an optical component of synthetic quartz glass, in the case of which a quartz glass blank is subjected to a multistage annealing treatment, with respect to compaction and central birefringence, the present invention suggests a method comprising the following steps:

Method for producing an optical component of synthetic quartz glass with enhanced radiation resistance, and blank for producing the component

To provide an optical component of quartz glass for use in a projection lens system for immersion lithography with an operating wavelength below 250 nm, which is optimized for use with linearly polarized UV laser radiation and particularly with respect to compaction and birefringence induced by anisotropic density change, it is suggested according to the invention that the quartz glass should show the combination of several properties: particularly a glass structure essentially without oxygen defects, a mean content of hydroxyl groups of less than 60 wt ppm, a mean content of fluorine of less than 10 wt ppm, a mean content of chlorine of less than 1 wt ppm. A method for producing such an optical component comprises the following method steps: producing and drying an SiOsoot body under reducing conditions and treating the dried soot body before or during vitrification with a reagent reacting with oxygen defects of the quartz glass structure.

Growing community of inventors

Rodenbach, Germany

Denis Kassube