Ultraviolet laser delivery using an uncoated hollow taper

Author

Ilev, Ilko K. ; Waynant, RonaldW ; Ediger, Marwood N. ; Bonaguidi, Michael A.

Author_Institution

US Food & Drug Adm., Center for Devices & Radiol. Health, Rockville, MD, USA

Volume

36

Issue

8

fYear

2000

Firstpage

944

Lastpage

948

Abstract

We demonstrate a simple grazing-incidence-based method for ultraviolet (UV) laser delivery and direct laser-to-taper coupling using an uncoated glass hollow taper. The taper serves as a mode homogenizer that converts the strongly multimode distribution of the input laser emission into a high-quality smooth profile at the taper output. An uncoated pyrex-glass hollow taper is used for direct launching, without any intermediate focusing elements, of UV laser emission from the third harmonic ( 355 nm) of a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser into the taper. The linear hollow taper provides a laser-to-taper coupling efficiency exceeding 70%.

Keywords

Q-switching; laser applications in medicine; laser modes; optical fibres; optical focusing; optical harmonic generation; 355 nm; 70 percent; Q-switched Nd:YAG laser; UV laser delivery; UV laser emission; YAG:Nd; YAl5O12:Nd; direct laser-to-taper coupling; direct launching; grazing-incidence-based method; high-quality smooth profile; input laser emission; intermediate focusing; laser-to-taper coupling efficiency; linear hollow taper; mode homogenizer; strongly multimode distribution; taper output; third harmonic; ultraviolet laser delivery; uncoated glass hollow taper; uncoated hollow taper; uncoated pyrex-glass hollow taper; Biomedical optical imaging; Fiber lasers; Focusing; Laser modes; Optical attenuators; Optical coupling; Optical materials; Optical waveguides; Stimulated emission; Waveguide lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.853551

Filename

853551