Geometry of Chalcogenide Negative Curvature Fibers for CO2 Laser Transmission

We study the impact of geometry on leakage loss in negative curvature fibers made with As2Se3 chalcogenide and As2Se3 chalcogenide glasses for carbon dioxide (CO2) laser transmission. The minimum leakage loss decreases when the core diameter increases both for fibers with six and for fibers with eight cladding tubes. The optimum gap corresponding to the minimum loss increases when the core diameter increases for negative curvature fibers with six cladding tubes. For negative curvature fibers with eight cladding tubes, the optimum gap is always less than 20 mu m when the core diameter ranges from 300 mu m to 500 mu m. The influence of material loss on fiber loss is also studied. When material loss exceeds 10(2) dB/m, it dominates the fiber leakage loss for negative curvature fiber at a wavelength of 10.6 mu m.