The electron and photon trigger of the CMS experiment

The CMS high-resolution electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) comprises 75848 lead tungstate (PbWO4) crystals and is optimized for the discovery of the SM Higgs boson in its two-photon decay mode. With the unprecedented collision rate at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the electron/photon (EG) Trigger plays a major role in selecting the collisions most likely to yield something new and interesting. Since the start of physics in March 2010 the LHC instantaneous luminosity has increased by many orders of magnitude to reach more than 7e33 cm-2 s-1 at the end of 2012, presenting a major challenge for the trigger system. This talk will present the performance of the EG trigger based on data recorded by the CMS detector in 2011 and 2012.