Mechanical properties of silver halide core/clad IR fibers

We have developed core/clad polycrystalline silver halide optical fibers with a loss of roughly 0.3 dB/m at 10.6 micrometers. Such fibers, with core diameters 0.3 - 0.6 mm and lengths of 1 to 2 meters are capable of continuously delivering output power densities as high as 14 KW/cm ². The fibers were repetitively bent in the plastic and elastic regimes and the optical transmission monitored during bending. The mechanical properties of the core/clad fibers and of the core only fibers are similar. It was also demonstrated that the 'bending' properties of the core/clad fibers are determined by the cladding material. Our investigations suggest that proper design of the core/clad structure may give significant improvement in mechanical properties such as more cycles to optical failure. This will be very important especially for endoscopic laser surgery and other medical applications.