title: Processing and characterization of silver films used to fabricate hollow glass waveguides.
abstract: Hollow glass waveguides are an increasingly popular fiber for the delivery of high-power IR laser radiation. At CO(2) laser wavelengths the measured and theoretical losses agree, but at the 3-microm Er:YAG laser wavelength the losses remain higher than expected. The reason for this is the surface roughness of the silver film used to form the first layer of the Ag/AgI thin-film structure. We found that the roughness of the silver film increases fivefold as silvering times increase from 5 to 80 min. This increased surface roughness produces a concomitant linear increase in the attenuation coefficient for the silver-only guides for wavelengths shorter than approximately 5 microm.
authors.affiliation: Ceramic and Materials Engineering, Rutgers University, 607 Taylor Road, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854-8065, USA.
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Rabii
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Gibson
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Harrington