Ultraviolet radiation induced defects of two different conventional borosilicate glass types, BK7 with high and Duran with low optical basicity caused by different M2O/b2o3 ratios, were studied. Glass samples melted with starting materials of special high purity have high transmission in the deep ultraviolet range with an intrinsic ultraviolet edge near 175um for Duran and ~200nm for BK7. The investigations were concentrated on the influence of ultraviolet absorbing dopants. Samples without and with dopants were irradiated with strong ultraviolet lamps and excimer lasers. BK7 and Duran samples without dopants are very stable against ultraviolet lamp, XeCl and KrF but not against ArF laser irradiation. The defect generation is increased with the use of refining agents in a different way compared with increasing Fe content in the range 10-200ppm.
