Investigation of fiber waveguides for transmission of high-power radiation in laser technology

An investigation was made of the transfer of cw YAG:Nd³⁺ laser radiation (λ = 1.06 μm) of up to 250 W power along quartz–polymer fiber waveguides. The transmission coefficient of waveguides with a core diameter 0.4–0.6 mm was 0.8 for a fiber of length L = 5 m and 0.5 for L = 97–241 m. There were no radiation losses if the radius of a bend of a fiber waveguide exceeded 16 mm. Quartz–polymer fiber waveguides were found to be suitable for industrial equipment used in heat treatment by high-power laser radiation.