Abstract

Due to an increasing peak power available from solid-state laser systems and growing number of applications of such radiation sources, there is a great demand for a means of laser pulses transport from the source to the interaction place. Good transmission properties of the recently developed hollow waveguides in the infrared spectral region are especially appreciated, as the possibilities to deliver radiation via a flexible device. Up to now the transport of short near infrared pulses or pulses from mid-infrared region were limited to articulated arms or other mirror-based systems and to low-OH fibers with rather short lifetime.

© 2000 IEEE