Small-bore, polymer-coated hollow fibers for medical infrared lasers

Author

Abe, Y. ; Matsuura, Y. ; Miyagi, M.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Commun., Tohoku Univ., Sendai, Japan

Volume

4

fYear

1999

fDate

Aug. 30 1999-Sept. 3 1999

Firstpage

1307

Abstract

For medical applications, a hollow fiber is an effective delivery medium for infrared lasers represented by Er:YAG and CO/sub 2/ lasers which common silica glass fibers cannot transmit due to the absorption. We have developed hollow fibers with a polymer thin film upon the inside of silver-coated glass capillary tube and shown their low loss properties for high-powered infrared lasers. In this paper, we report the results on small bore hollow fibers with the bore sizes of 320 /spl mu/m and 250 /spl mu/m which we newly developed for medical applications requiring highly flexible fibers or targeting laser beam at very small objects.

Keywords

laser applications in medicine; laser beams; optical fibre cladding; optical fibre fabrication; optical polymers; 250 mum; 320 mum; Ag; CO/sub 2/; CO/sub 2/ lasers; Er:YAG lasers; YAG:Er; YAl5O12:Er; bore sizes; effective delivery medium; high-powered infrared lasers; highly flexible fibers; hollow fiber; infrared lasers; low loss properties; medical applications; medical infrared lasers; polymer thin film; silver-coated glass capillary tube; small-bore polymer-coated hollow fibers; targeting laser beam; very small objects; Boring; Dielectric thin films; Electromagnetic wave absorption; Fiber lasers; Glass; Interference; Optical fiber communication; Optical fibers; Polymer films; Silver;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Lasers and Electro-Optics, 1999. CLEO/Pacific Rim '99. The Pacific Rim Conference on

Conference_Location

Seoul, South Korea

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5661-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CLEOPR.1999.814788

Filename

814788