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, which, in a method for producing a synthetic quartz glass member for
excimer laser optics 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° 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.