Carbon dioxide laser polishing of fused silica surfaces for increased laser-damage resistance at 1064 nm

Temple, Paul; Lowdermilk, W. H.; Milam, D.

doi:10.1364/ao.21.003249

Cited by 132 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…In the literature, there are reports on glass processing by controlling the glass viscosity below the ablation threshold using a CO 2 laser beam. These works provide an improvement of the surface damage resistance in fused silica optics [14,15], localized repairing of damages in fused silica optics [16][17][18], laser polishing of conventional glasses [19,20] and optical fiber end surfaces [9,21] and, also, in the manufacturing of micro-optical components. In our approach, modulation of CO 2 laser takes an important place for smoothing the silica glass and fiber surfaces without deforming the delicate conical shaped optical fiber deflectors.…”

Section: Co 2 Laser-silica Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

CO2 laser polishing of conical shaped optical fiber deflectors

2017

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have been proposed and several types are currently used for tissue ablation. The types of deflector shapes are bare, sidefiring and radial. Bare fiber optic deflectors (basic deflector geometry) transmit the laser energy in the same direction along the fiber. Side-firing optical fiber optical deflectors transmit laser light perpendicular to the fiber axis through specific direction and they are widely used in many medical applications, especially in the prostate tumor ablation [1]. One of the most popular deflector types is radial design. Radial fiber optic deflectors with conically shaped optical fiber end transmit the laser energy radially and the laser energy is homogeneously distributed into a ring-shaped beam. These deflectors are especially used in endovenous laser ablation (EVLA) [2]. Unlike other cone-shaped fiber optical probes [3][4][5][6][7] used for various applications, EVLA operation needs μm-scale, multimode (MM) optical fibers and specific cone-angle values to fulfill the EVLA operation requirements. Thus, multi-mode, larger NA and μm-scale optical fibers are preferred in the operations. The homogeneous, ring-shaped laser energy distribution can be achieved with large cone angles which are detailed in this study. It allows a perfect irradiation of vein walls and their ablation. Among existent fiber processing methods such as chemical, FIB [3][4][5], mechanical polishing method is the best candidate to obtain such desired cone-angles. Furthermore, mechanical polishing process is applicable for mass-production of conical shaped optical fibers used in EVLA operation. In the mechanical polishing process, the deflector geometry is first formed with rough lapping film, then, the surface roughness of the deflector is gradually smoothed by polishing with smoother lapping films [8]. This process is composed of several steps to obtain high quality surface structures and a well-prepared fiber deflector surface eliminates the optical losses such as scattering and back reflection. However, the mechanical fining Abstract A novel method for polishing conical shaped optical fiber deflectors by modulated CO 2 laser exposure is reported. The conical shaped fiber deflector geometry was first formed with rough mechanical polishing, then it was exposed to modulated CO 2 laser operating with wavelength at 10.6 µm to achieve fine polish surfaces. The motivation of this work is to demonstrate that the modulated CO 2 laser exposure approach allows a fiber surface roughness at a nanometer scale without modifying the conical shape of the fiber deflector. The average surface roughness of mechanically polished fiber deflectors with 30 and 9 µm lapping films was smoothed down to 20.4 and 4.07 nm, respectively, after CO 2 laser polishing process. By combining mechanical and laser polishing techniques, fabrication of conical shaped optical fiber deflectors takes less time and it becomes laborer independent and easy to apply.

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Section: Co 2 Laser-silica Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

CO2 laser polishing of conical shaped optical fiber deflectors

2017

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“…In addition to controlled shaping of silica glass through ablation, the CO 2 laser can also be used for polishing [10][11][12][13] resulting in ultralow scattering loss and increasing the laser damage resistance of surfaces [13][14][15]. CO 2 laser polishing promises a non-contact approach with fast preparation times and high quality surface finishes for silica glass fibres.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High precision 96 µm CO_2 laser end-face processing of optical fibres

Boyd¹,

Rees²,

Simakov³

et al. 2015

Opt. Express

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Reproducible, precise cleaving of optical fibres is of great importance to the fibre laser and telecommunications industries. We present a novel approach to the end-face processing of optical fibres using a 9.6 µm CO 2 laser to produce flat, smooth and symmetric fibre end-face profiles with no rounding or melting at the edges of the fibre. As a demonstration, precision cleaving of a 400 µm diameter optical fibre is reported. For this fibre a topographical profile height of <400 nm (0.06°) and a reproducibility better than 200 nm (0.03°) was achieved. To the best of our knowledge this is the first demonstration of a CO 2 process that has generated a fibre endface topography substantially smaller than a typical mechanical cleave. Highlighting the flexibility of this system, we have also demonstrated the generation of near arbitrary fiber end-face profiles such as discrete phase steps and non-spherical surface profiles.

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“…Thermal anneal of laser-induced damage on SiO 2 surface has also been achieved by exposure to 10.6 μm wavelength CO 2 laser irradiation (SiO 2 absorption coefficient ~10 3 cm -1 ), leading to significant surface smoothing and an arrest of growth [ (Temple, Lowdermilk et al 1982), (Brusasco, Penetrante et al 2002)]. While CO 2 laser heating permits the observation of local, in situ healing of damage sites [ (Yang, Matthews et al 2010)], in this study we employ an oven anneal for simultaneous treatment of a large number of sites at identical conditions which is necessary for elucidating the statistical nature of damage growth.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of thermal anneal on growth behavior of laser-induced damage sites on the exit surface of fused silica

Raman¹,

Negres²,

Matthews³

et al. 2013

Opt. Mater. Express

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Thermal anneal is known to arrest the growth of laser-induced damage in optical materials. However, the response of the material which leads to this observed behavior is poorly understood. In this work, we investigate the effect of isothermal anneal at 1100°C for 12 hours on the growth rate of laser-induced damage sites in fused silica. Growth rate was significantly lower for annealed initiated damage sites than that for untreated sites. This decrease in growth rate was associated with the closure of small surface and subsurface cracks, suggesting that aggressive growth rate is due, at least in part, to subsurface fracture complexity.

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Carbon dioxide laser polishing of fused silica surfaces for increased laser-damage resistance at 1064 nm

Cited by 132 publications

References 1 publication

CO2 laser polishing of conical shaped optical fiber deflectors

CO2 laser polishing of conical shaped optical fiber deflectors

High precision 96 µm CO_2 laser end-face processing of optical fibres

Effect of thermal anneal on growth behavior of laser-induced damage sites on the exit surface of fused silica

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