Abstract

Pulsed HF chemical lasers operating at 2.6-3.0 µm are suitable for medical applications such as corneal tissue ablation¹ because of the strong absorption (~10³ cm⁻¹) of much of the water·contained in the organic tissues. For practical use of the medical applications flexibility of the energy delivery system is indispensable; it must point the laser beam precisely at the tissue. The fluoride glass optical fiber will be able to deliver the high energy HF chemical laser due to its extremely low transmission loss (theoretically ~10⁻² dB/km), which is still a state-of-the-art technology. More efficient tissue cutting is possible since nonchain HF lasers can generate shorter pulse outputs rather than the Er:YAG solid-state lasers (2.94 µm), However, optical energy delivery of pulsed HF lasers through an optical fiber has not been reported yet, whereas cw HF lasers can be delivered through optical fibers.²

© 1992 Optical Society of America