Plane-parallel cavities with Gaussian-reflectivity-profile mirrors as full reflectors were applied to a XeCl laser, and the near- and the far-field characteristics of the laser radiation were analyzed. It is shown that excimer lasers fitted with plane-parallel Gaussian cavities deliver laser radiation with a beam-quality factor M(2) that is more than 50% smaller than that of laser beams delivered by conventional plane-parallel cavities. The effect of the Gaussian mirror spot size on M(2) was also investigated, and it is shown that the narrowing of the Gaussian mirror spot size reduces the beam-quality-factor value.