Polymer/metal sulfide coated hollow waveguides for delivery of Er:YAG laser radiation

摘要

Polystyrene (PS) as a low index dielectric material in silver-coated hollow glass waveguides (HGW) has been studied as an alternative to the more conventional Ag/AgI HGWs. Polystyrene was chosen because it has been well characterized and it is easily dissolved in toluene. The waveguides were made using an electroless, wet chemistry technique. The absorbance spectrum for polystyrene indicates it will transmit from 1 to 3 μm and thus, it is useful at the Er:YAG laser wavelength of 2.94 μm. For multilayer HGWs, cadmium sulfide is the high index dielectric material.