Abstract
For delivery of powerful radiation in visible spectral region - cyclic olefin polymer-coated silver (COP/Ag) hollow glass waveguides with a length of 1 m and inner diameters of 1 mm were tested. As radiation sources - alexandrite electro-optically Q-switched laser generating tunable radiation centered at 750 nm (fundamental) or 375 nm (SHG) and two Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:YAG lasers generating wavelengths 1064 nm (fundamental) or 532 nm (SHG) were used. In every case, the output beam was coupled into the COP/Ag hollow glass waveguide. Coupling of radiation was optimized investigating several waveguide input protectors made from different materials to avoid spark generation at high radiation intensity. Transmittance/attenuation as a function of the input laser energy was measured in dependence to input radiation wavelength. The input/output time radiation characteristics and the spatial distributions of the output beams were also investigated. Transmission efficiency of the COP/Ag waveguides was found to be 80-95 % in the spectral range from green to near infrared. In the blue region, transmittance was 66 %. The measured transmission properties make COP/Ag hollow glass waveguides very promising for delivery of high-power laser pulses in medicine and also in other applications.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 58-67 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering |
| Volume | 4253 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2001 |
| Event | Optical Fibers and Sensors for Medical Applications - San Jose, CA, United States Duration: 2001 Jan 20 → 2001 Jan 21 |
Keywords
- Cyclic olefin polymer-coated silver hollow glass waveguide
- Nd:YAG laser
- Picosecond pulses