Hollow light guide and optical fiber for UV laser transmission

The applications of ultraviolet lasers in medicine and surgery are expected to produce new therapies since UV laser is strongly absorbed by lipids, proteins and nucleic acids. The suitable tools for the UV laser power delivery, however, have not been developed yet. In an effort to make efficient delivery of UV laser, we have proposed hollow light guide which consists of an aluminum-phosphor bronze reflector and a teflon E-type rail spacer. The delivery characteristics of the hollow light guide have been investigated using the ArF and KrF excimer lasers. In case of the KrF laser, the transmittance and delivery energy reached 77%/m and 110 mJ/pulse, respectively. In the ArF laser, the transmittance and delivery energy were obtained to be 56%/m and 40 mJ/pulse, respectively. It is known that 193 nm radiation by the ArF laser are absorbed by the air. Thus, the ArF laser beam delivery were examined in the helium gas. The transmittance and the delivery energy were obtained to be 72%/m and 50 mJ/pulse using helium-filled hollow light guide, which were greatly improved for comparison with the case of the air. We have also tried the quartz fiber with OH ion doped core. The effects of a lightly doped core with Cl and a clad with B-F on the laser transmittance have been investigated. In these result, the Cl was not good core dopant. The B and F were useful clad dopants for the excimer laser transmission.