High-Peak-power, pulsed CO↓(2) laser light delivery by hollow glass waveguides

摘要

Flexible hollow glass waveguides with internal metallic and dielectric coatings have been used to deliver high-peak-power transversely excited atmosphere CO↓(2) laser energy. The straight guide loss is as low as 0.17 dB,m for 1000-gm-bore guides and 0.46 dB/m for 530-gm-bore guides propagating the HE↓(11) mode. The loss increases to 0.03 and 1.36 dB/ m, respectively, when guides are bent to a radius of 0.25 m. The hollow glass waveguides have been used to deliver pulsed CO↓(2) laser energy successfully with a peak power of 0.7 MW and an energy of 350 mJ per pulse with a gas purge through the hollow core. The delivered average power is as high as 27 W. It is concluded that these waveguides are promising candidates for pulsed CO↓(2) laser deliver, in medical and surgical applications. # 1997 Optical Society of America