Abstract
There has been much recent interest in infrared-transmitting materials because of their potential of becoming the next generation of optical communication fibers. One of these polycrystalline fibers, thallium bromo-iodide (commonly known as KRS-5), is considered to be a good candidate because it is both transparent down to 25 μm and, unlike fluoride glasses, is not hygroscopic. Moreover, it has been found that the long 10.6-μm wavelength is strongly absorbed by animal tissues and thus the combination of a CO<sub>2</sub> laser with a KRS-5 fiber would be good choice for medical surgery. Usually, fibers of KRS-5 are extruded continuously from a high-pressure ram extrusion apparatus; thus it is important to understand the effect of pressure on the optical properties of KRS-5 fibers, particularly as pressure has been shown to induce a large red shift in the optical absorption edges of thallium halide salts. Furthermore, it is not clear whether the frequency shift is a reversible process in KRS-5 and thus whether the pressure used in the manufacturing process will have an impact on the transmitting characteristics of the final products.
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