An exposure apparatus that irradiates excitation laser onto a target, and generates from generated plasma a light source for generating illumination light of an extreme ultraviolet region or an X-ray region includes an illumination optical system that uses the illumination light to illuminate a catoptric reticle that forms a pattern to be transferred, the illumination optical system including a first mirror closest to the light source, an ellipsoidal mirror for condensing the illumination light in front of the first mirror in the illumination optical system, and a projection optical system that reduces and projects the pattern reflected on the reticle onto an object to be exposed, wherein light where an optical-axis direction of the excitation laser proceeds beyond a position that generates the plasma by the excitation laser does not interfere with components in the exposure apparatus including the illumination and projection optical systems, and the ellipsoidal mirror.