LOSS REDUCTION OF DIELECTRIC-COATED METALLIC HOLLOW WAVE-GUIDES FOR CO2-LASER LIGHT TRANSMISSION

A condition for reducing transmission loss of a dielectric-coated metallic hollow waveguide is shown theoretically when the inner metallic surface is not perfect. It is also shown that the transmission loss for CO2 laser light is 10.6 μm wavelength is able to be estimated from an attenuation spectrum of a short waveguide. By fabricating a ZnSe coated Ag hollow waveguide of short length, we have shown that it has a lower loss than a Ge coated waveguide for CO2 laser light. © 1990.