Abstract
Due to increasing requirements to apply high energy mid-infrared radiation in various branches of medicine (cardiology, dentistry, dermatology, urology, gastroenterology), a sufficiently flexible and lossless delivery system is required. To transport these high energy pulses in a mid-infrared region, special cyclic olefin polymer-coated silver (COP/Ag) hollow glass waveguides were prepared and tested. The length of the waveguides was 0.5 m and inner diameter 1 mm. As a radiation source, an Er:YAG laser was used. The system generated energy up to 2.16 J or 2.35 J (depending on the repetition rate used - 3 Hz or 4 Hz, respectively). The length of transmitted pulses was measured to be 110 μs to 550 μs, depending on the pumping level. The output radiation was coupled into the COP/Ag hollow glass waveguide and the throughput and losses values were measured against the input radiation parameters. The transmission obtained was 91%. The maximum peak power up to 3 kW and mean power up to 5 W were delivered without any breakdown. The characteristics obtained make this specially constructed COP/Ag hollow glass waveguide a very promising device for the delivery of high-energy laser pulses in medicine and also in other applications.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 178-182 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering |
| Volume | 4957 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2003 |
| Event | PROGRESS IN BIOMEDICAL OPTICS AND IMAGING: Optical Fibers and Sensors for Medical Applications III - San Jose, CA, United States Duration: 2003 Jan 25 → 2003 Jan 28 |
Keywords
- Cyclic olefin polymer-coated silver hollow glass waveguide
- Er:YAG laser
- High energy delivery
- Waveguide transmittance