Preparation and IR transmission properties of Ag/AgI hollow glass waveguides

Ag/AgI hollow glass waveguides are an attractive and flexible fiber for the delivery systems of IR radiation. By the liquid-pha-se chemistry deposition technique Ag/AgI hollow glass waveguides with a length of 1.5m and an inner diameter of 1.0, 0.53, 0.32mm, respectively, were successfully fabricated. With the cutback method the attenuation of waveguides was measured by using Infrared Fourier Translation Spectrometer (FTS-65A) and LTL-35A CO2 laser. The results show that the attenuation (a) of Ag/AgI hollow glass waveguides is low within 2.5 similar to 20 mum wavelength and decreases with the increment of the inner diameter(alpha) as alpha proportional to 1/a(3). Due to the heat on the insert end of waveguides the attenuation increases as the input power enlarges.