Transmission characteristics of germanium thin-film-coated metallic hollow waveguides for high-powered CO/sub 2/ laser light

Various losses such as straight waveguide losses, coupling losses from a CO/sub 2/ laser, and bending losses are studied. The authors studied the fact that high-powered CO/sub 2/ laser light could be transmitted through germanium-coated waveguides and investigated beam profiles from straight or bent waveguides. To ascertain the application of the waveguide in wavelengths other than 10.6 mu m, the authors investigated the wavelength-dependent losses of the waveguide excited by incoherent IR light. As a result, the thickness of the deposited germanium layer can be very precisely obtained.<
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