Laser with versatile output energy

摘要

A method of operating a laser system for increasing the lifetimes of optical components of the resonator includes the steps of configuring the laser system to initially output laser pulses at an energy in a range above a predetermined energy for industrial lithographic processing, and attenuating the energy of the output pulses to the predetermined energy. A further step includes reducing an amount of attenuation as optics of the laser resonator age to maintain the laser pulses at the predetermined energy, or reducing the amount of attenuation to produce pulses having a higher energy than the predetermined energy.