Corrosion behaviors of the copper alloy electrodes in ArF excimer laser operation process

The corrosion behaviors of the ArF excimer laser copper alloy electrodes were studied. The morphology, composition and impurities were characterized by optical microscope, scanning electron microscopy, electron microprobe and glow discharge mass spectrometer methods. The anode produces the reef, the corrosion pits, the hole layer and the $1{-}10~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$ level flake impurity. The cathode produces the particles, the sputtering pits, the element reduce layer and the $1~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$ level particle impurity. Besides the Cu element, other elements in the alloy participate in the corrosion: Al element in the reef is over 1.5 times of the anode, Zn element in the particles is 1.3 times of the cathode, many trace elements congregate on the copper surface several and even hundreds of times. These elements are responsible to a great degree for the impurities and the rapid energy decline of the long-time idled laser.