Compared to other transparent infrared fiber materials, ZBLAN fluoride glasses promise to be best suited for laser power delivery in the 3μm wavelength region due to their high transmission and excellent mechanical flexibility. These claims were demonstrated in a series of power handling tests of both straight and coiled fibers using an Er,Cr:YSGG laser emitting a train of pulses of 150 μs duration at a repetition frequency of 20 Hz producing 7.5 W average power. Large core fibers (450/510μm 0,2NA) are characterized by an attenuation of 0.02dB/m at 3μm and stay within 0.5°C from ambient temperature when carrying full laser power. A 2-m fiber length prepared with bare cleaves has been tested for over 23 hours, cumulating 1,140,000 shots of 1530 J/cm² fluence while maintaining 90% transmission without any measurable degradation. Coiling the fiber to 11 cm radius did not have an impact on power handling reliability. These results show the potential of these highly transparent fibers in surgical laser delivery applications.

Date Published: 7 February 2008
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 6852, Optical Fibers and Sensors for Medical Diagnostics and Treatment Applications VIII, 68520D (7 February 2008); doi: 10.1117/12.761053

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6852:
Optical Fibers and Sensors for Medical Diagnostics and Treatment Applications VIII
Israel Gannot, Editor(s)