Solid state pulsed high-repetition-rate excimer lasers

Abstract

As the most efficient UV laser sources excimer lasers are unique tools for the various fields of material processing. Essentially, the tight process windows fuel the need for better dose control during laser illumination and hence the demand for high repetition rate excimer lasers operating at comparably low pulse energies of only some 10 mJ. Compact, flexible excimer lasers offering high repetition rate-low energy and low cost of ownership pave the way to efficient mask writing and wafer inspection systems for chip manufacturing as well as to efficient testing of optical materials. Utilizing micro-mirror arrays, high-repetition rate-low energy excimer lasers are ideal for flexible direct-write material processing approaches e.g., in laser marking or cleaning. Moreover, medical applications such as refractive eye surgery currently using up to 200 Hz repetition rate will benefit from high-repetition rate excimer lasers offering reduced treatment times with excimer laser based systems with 500 Hz and even 1000 Hz in the near future.