Optical fibres for high-energy pulses
Researchers in the Applied Optics and Photonics group (in collaboration with the University of Bath) have fabricated and characterised a new hollow core microstructured single mode fibre. This so called Negative Curvature Fibres was designed to have ultra low-loss and low-bending sensitivity to enable efficient delivery of high energy pulsed laser light in the green spectral region. This particular fibre has an attenuation of 0.15 dB/m at 532 nm and provides robust transmission of nanosecond and picosecond pulses without degrading the temporal or spatial properties of the source. Such fibres have been demonstrated for applications in precision micro-machining of metals and glass and are now being further developed for novel surgical procedures.