Silver halide infrared transmitting core/clad fibers with small cores

Polycrystalline silver halide AgClBr fibers are highly transparent in the mid-IR. They are flexible, insoluble in water non-toxic and biocompatible. These fibers are potentially useful for many applications, such as laser surgery, fiberoptic thermometry and infrared spectroscopy. Typical core/clad fibers consist of Br rich core and Cl rich cladding, and they normally have relatively large cores (diameters larger than 350μm) and low transmission losses. There is a wide interest in the development of core/clad fibers with core diameters smaller than 200μm, yet with low transmission losses. Such small core fibers would be useful for all the applications mentioned above. We have developed core/clad fibers with core diameters 140μm and with transmission losses of about IdB/m at a wavelength of 10.6 microns. The properties of the fibers and some of their applications will be discussed.