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In this paper, we report anti-resonant silica hollow-core fibers (AR-HCFs) for solarization-free ultraviolet (UV) pulse transmission. The new fibers reported have lower attenuation than any previous HCFs for this spectral range. We report a single fiber that guides over a part of the UV-C and the whole of the UV-A spectral regions in adjacent transmission bands. A second AR-HCF is used for delivery of 17 nanosecond laser pulses at 266 nm at 30 kHz repetition rate. The fiber maintained a constant transmission, free of silica fluorescence and solarization-induced fiber degradation while delivering 0.46 μJ pulses for a period of over one hour. By direct comparison, we demonstrate that the single-mode AR-HCF significantly outperforms commercially-available high-OH and solarization-resistant silica multimode fibers for pulsed light delivery in this spectral range.

Transparent and electrically conductive metal nanowire networks are possible replacements for costly indium tin oxide (ITO) films in many optoelectronic devices. ITO films are regularly patterned using pulsed lasers so similar technologies could be used for nanowire coatings to define electrode structures. Here, the effects of laser irradiation on conducting silver nanowire coatings are simulated and then investigated experimentally for networks formed by spray deposition onto transparent substrates. The ablation threshold fluence is found experimentally for such nanowire networks and is then related to film thickness. An effective model using finite-element heat transfer analysis is examined to look at energy dissipation through these nanowire networks and used to understand mechanisms at play in the laser-material interactions. It is demonstrated that the three-dimensional nature of these coatings and the relative ratios of the rates of lateral to vertical heat diffusion are important controlling parameter affecting the ablation threshold.