Dual-frequency Characterization of Bending Loss in Hollow Flexible Terahertz Waveguides

Low-loss, hollow, flexible, metal-coated waveguides were designed and fabricated for the maximal transmission of terahertz radiation. Since recent terahertz skin, colon, and breast cancer studies showed a contrast between normal and diseased tissues between 500 to 600GHz frequencies, flexible metal-coated waveguides with various bore diameters were studied at both 584GHz and 1.4THz frequencies for endoscopic applications. Attenuation characteristics of 2μm thick silver-coated waveguides with 99% reflective inner surface were measured as a function of wavelength, bore diameter, bending angle and bend radius. Though the theoretical attenuation coefficient in metal-coated waveguide varies directly as square of wavelength, the propagation loss was found to be smaller at higher wavelengths. This study demonstrates that flexible waveguides with bore diameters less-than 10λ preserve the linearly polarized mode and hence exhibit low bending losses even at smaller bend radii. Also, in contrast to the lower propagation losses in larger bore tubes, the analysis shows higher transmission in smaller bore tubes at larger bending angles. Finally, the dual-frequency investigation of bending and modal characteristics confirms the feasibility of using these metal-coated flexible waveguides at various terahertz frequencies, to obtain low transmission losses even at greater flexures, in addition to the Gaussian mode preservation.