Investigation of the thickness of Ag, AgI films in the capillary for hollow waveguides

A metallic (Ag)-dielectric (AgI) hollow glass waveguide is a promising and flexible fiber for the delivery of high-power CO2 laser radiation. The thickness of metallic (Ag) films and dielectric (AgI) films is a critical factor which greatly influences the attenuation of the waveguides. In this paper, metallic (Ag)-dielectric (AgI) films were successfully prepared in the capillary whose inner diameter is 0.53 mm, and firstly investigated with theoretical analysis and measured by means of AES and SEM. There is good agreement between theoretical thickness and experimental results, which confirms the validity of the theoretical analysis, which makes the estimate of the thickness of both the metallic and dielectric films possible with high accuracy prior to the preparation of hollow glass waveguides. The attenuation spectra of Ag/AgI hollow waveguides shows the loss increases with the thickness of Ag, AgI films and indicates that the Ag/AgI hollow waveguide is suitable for the transmission of IR radiation. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.