Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Tadaaki Miki

Yasuhiro Shimada

Koichi Wani

Mutsumi Mimasu

Hidehito Kawahara

Naoki Kosugi

Yoshiro Ogata

In a discharge excitation gas laser device such as an excimer laser device provided with laser medium gas and a pair of electrodes opposite to each other in a gas-tight vessel, the laser medium gas is discharge-excited while inverting the polarity of a DC pulse voltage applied to the pair of electrodes opposite to each other for every pulse. In this way distribution of atoms and ions constituting the laser medium gas in the discharge region including the neighborhood of the main electrodes is made uniform even at a high repetition rate oscillation. Thus it is possible to realize a discharge excitation gas laser device having a good stability of DC pulse discharge without increasing unnecessarily the flow speed of the laser medium gas and no lowering in the pulse energy owing to a high efficiency operation.

Discharge excitation gas laser device

A pulsed light source comprising a laser for emitting light in pulse form in response to an electric power from a power supply which is changeable in accordance with a control signal from an external circuit and a photodetector responsive to the light from the laser so as to produce an electric signal corresponding to the intensity of the reception light. The output signal of the photodetector is supplied to a comparator so as to compare the electric signal therefrom with a reference signal to output a signal proportional to the difference between the electric signal and the reference signal. In response to the output signal of the comparator, a control circuit produces the control signal to be supplied to the power supply by adding the output signal of the comparator to a predetermined signal to control the electric power outputted from the power supply to the laser.

Control of output energy of a pulsed light source comprising a gas

A laser device includes an optical resonator comprising a laser medium and two totally reflecting mirrors disposed on respective sides of the laser medium. The laser device also has a wavelength selection element disposed between one of the totally reflecting mirrors and the laser medium. A partially reflecting mirror is disposed between the wavelength selection element and the laser medium. Any distortion and deterioration of the wavelength selection device are greatly reduced.

Laser device

A laser apparatus includes an optical resonator having a laser medium and generating a laser light. A wavelength selection element selects a given wavelength of the laser light. The selected wavelength resides within a gain bandwidth of the laser medium. A sealed container houses the wavelength selection element. The sealed container may be filled with a gas. A density of the gas within the sealed container may be changed to vary the selected wavelength.

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Osaka, Japan

Tadaaki Miki