A controller for a pulsed radiation source is a closed-loop controller of minimum order, preferably first, to effect dead beat control. Performance indicators for a pulsed radiation source in a lithographic apparatus are based on moving averages (MA) and moving standard deviations (MSD) of the error between target and actual pulse energies. The normalized indicators are given by:
wherein Epref(i) and Eperr(i) indicate reference energy per pulse and energy error per pulse for point i and