Quartz Optical Fibers with Increased Content of Fluorine for Fluorimeter Probes

Abstract

A method to fabricate quartz optical fibers for probes employed in fluorescence diagnostics of tumors is proposed. It is shown that the sensitivity of fluorimeters in the near-IR spectral range can be increased using quartz–quartz optical fiber probes with the core made of the Heraeus glass and the SiO₂–F cladding with an increased content of fluorine in the glass of up 7 wt %. The numerical aperture of such optical fibers amounts to 0.32. The optical fibers are used to develop a prototype of a multifiber high-aperture probe for a laser oncofluorimeter with a relatively high sensitivity in a spectral interval of 900–1100 nm.