Polymer-coated hollow fiber for CO2 laser delivery

Hollow fibers for CO2 laser light have been fabricated with a cyclic olefin polymer as the inner dielectric. A film of cyclic olefin polymer was coated inside the glass capillary tubing by a simple liquid-flowing process. A polymer-coated fiber with a 700-mu m bore showed a loss of 0.06 dB/m for CO2 laser light because cyclic olefin polymer has low absorption at a 10.6-mu m wavelength. (C) 1998 Optical Society of America.