VERFAHREN ZUR HERSTELLUNG VON SYNTHETISCHEN QUARZGLASELEMENTEN FÜR EXCIMERLASER UND DAZU HERGESTELLTE SYNTHETISCHE QUARZGLASELEMENTE

摘要

In the light of the disadvantages of the prior art technology, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing a synthetic quartz glass member for excimer lasers, which comprises, while suppressing the generation of reductive defects which impairs the resistance against laser radiations, incorporating a sufficient amount of hydrogen molecules capable of achieving a high resistance against laser radiation into the quartz glass, yet uniformly incorporating the hydrogen molecules to realize a flat distribution in refractive indices attributed to the distribution in the density of hydrogen molecules. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a synthetic quartz glass member for excimer lasers obtained by the production method above, which yields high resistance against laser radiations and homogeneity. The above problems have been overcome by a method for producing a synthetic quartz glass member for excimer lasers comprising a step of incorporating hydrogen molecules into a synthetic quartz glass body by heat treating the synthetic quartz glass body at a temperature of 600 DEG C or lower under an atmosphere in a pressure range of 1 atm or higher but lower than 150 atm and containing hydrogen, said method comprises varying the pressure of the gas containing hydrogen either continuously or stepwise in at least a part of the heat treatment.