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Mid-infrared multimode fluoride fiber bend loss studies and FEM modeling – towards surgical applications
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Mid-infrared multimode fluoride fiber bend loss studies and FEM modeling – towards surgical applications

Daniel Keefe, Sandeep Laroia and Fatima Toor
Applied optics (2004), Vol.64(33), pp.9984-9994
11/20/2025
DOI: 10.1364/AO.575793
PMID: 41841973

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Abstract

Mid-infrared (MIR) optical fibers have many applications in spectroscopy, sensors, and surgery. Metal fluoride optical fibers are excellent candidates for guiding MIR light sources due to their exceptionally low transmission loss. To guarantee the efficiency and safety of these fibers for high-power applications, it is necessary to characterize their macroscopic bend loss. In this work, we report experimental measurements and numerical modeling of macroscopic bend loss in multimode InF3 and ZrF4 optical fibers. Our results confirm that no significant bend loss occurs in the fibers for bend radii between 5 and 25 cm. This finding was consistent across both the physical measurements and the predictions from our COMSOL ray-tracing simulations. These results indicate that these multimode fluoride fibers are efficient and safe for high-power applications like spectroscopy and surgery.

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