Hollow core photonic bandgap fibers for medical applications

The design, fabrication and characterization of photonic band gap (PBG) based optical polymer fibers is discussed. Unlike conventional total internal reflection (TIR) fibers, used primarily in telecommunications, PBG fibers can be made hollow core and can be used to guide infrared radiation of any wavelength, a property known as wavelength scalability. Since the electromagnetic radiation is transmitted in the hollow core of the fiber, the intrinsic absorption of the fiber core as well as the insertion Fresnel losses at front and end faces are avoided, giving rise to extraordinarily high power densities to be delivered. The fiber production line includes material characterization, and the design of nanoscale quarter wavestacks using common thermoplastic polymers (poly ether sulphone and poly ether imide) and chalcogenide glasses (As2S3, As2Se3, Ge15As25Se15Te45). The fiber preform is fabricated using rolling mechanism of thermally evaporated chalcogenide glasses on large area polymers. Subsequently, the fiber preforms are thermally drawn to obtain nano-structured PBG fibers.Two different fibers are designed and produced, signifying wavelength scalability of the overall process, for the widely used holmium (Ho:YAG) and carbon dioxide (CO2) medical lasers. The transmission characteristics of the fibers proved that they can be used to safely deliver 15Wlaser power, along a 3 meter fiber with external diameter of 1.5 mm and hollow core diameter of 0.5 mm, corresponding to a laser power density of 1kW/cm2 with a loss of -10dB/m. The PBG fibers are expected to be widely used in high precision surgical laser for incision, photoablation and coagulation where infrared radiation is the radiation of choice for its superior laser-tissue interaction properties.