Wow, that's like the entire microelectronics class I took in undergrad compressed into an hour, just without any of the math and (obviously) light on theory. Impressive.
I worked for an optical company building complete objective lenses and illuminator optics for steppers using G-line, I-line, and ArF and KrF laser sources. "Solarization" and ablation of the lens coatings was an ongoing problem, especially for UV sources. A stepper objective has 20+ lens elements. Lenses were refurbished by replacing elements as their transmission fell.
Yes - just saw that too. Anyone else able to supply more information on what is going on there? That seems un-possible, but i'm no physicist
It's not just any light, it's pretty serious deep ultraviolet lasers. (one quick google was showing 60-90W pulsed @6khz lasers @ ~200nm wavelength.)
Stuff degrades in UV light, and that laser is going to be far brighter than you would have ordinary experience with.