Abstract

Transmission losses of two types of dielectric-coated rectangular waveguide are analyzed theoretically to transmit linearly or circularly polarized CO₂ laser light. When ZnS and PbTe are chosen as coating materials, waveguide losses are reduced by ~ 1 order of magnitude by increasing each pair of coating materials. Phosphor bronze rectangular waveguides with small aspect ratios and various cross sections, whose inner walls are coated with a single PbF₂ layer, are fabricated by using vacuum-evaporation and assembly techniques. Transmission losses of straight and bent waveguides are measured for coherent CO₂ laser light as well as for incoherent infrared lights. Straight waveguide losses of 0.1 dB/m including a coupling loss from a laser, are obtained at a 10.6-μm wavelength for 1-m-long and small-core waveguides.

© 1992 Optical Society of America

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