JPS6246843B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a connector used for an optical input section to an optical fiber used in a therapeutic laser device having an optical fiber for transmitting high-energy laser light. It is.

[Technical background and problems of the invention]

Currently, various medical devices using laser light have been proposed, and one example of one used in the field of plastic surgery is a laser treatment device for removing and treating colored birthmarks such as birthmarks, age spots, and freckles.

Conventionally, there are many methods used to treat birthmarks, including cell destruction with dry ice, skin grafting, excision, scraping, and baking with electric drying. Methods are known, but none of these methods is very effective compared to the size of the invasion, the treatment itself causes pain to the patient, requires hospitalization, and requires a long treatment period. There are drawbacks such as
Improvements in treatment methods have been desired. Recently, with the development and improvement of laser devices, a method of burning the affected area using a laser beam has been proposed, and although the number of cases is small, it is being put into practical use, and its therapeutic effects are also being recognized.

However, when performing treatment using laser light, conventional devices use a method in which the laser light from the laser light source is guided through a lens system, resulting in significantly poor operability during the process of guiding the laser light to the affected area. . For example, positioning when performing laser irradiation treatment on an affected area is performed by moving the laser oscillator or the patient himself.

As one of these improvements in operability, attempts have been made to use optical fibers in the laser light guide path.
For example, there is a laser treatment device as shown in FIG.

In the figure, 1 is a main body of the apparatus, in which a laser oscillator, a power supply, and an operation panel are built into the same housing. The laser light emitted from the laser oscillator is connected via the connector 2 to a light guide section 3 containing a built-in optical fiber, and the output end of the light guide section 3 is used to uniformize the light intensity distribution of the laser light. For example, a hand piece 4 for manual operation equipped with a kaleidoscope made of rod-shaped optical glass is connected to constitute the device.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the main part of the connector 2, that is, the connector portion that inputs the laser beam output from the laser oscillation source 2 to the end face of the optical fiber with high positional accuracy. That is, in the connector part, the optical fiber 11 forming the light guiding member is inserted into the sleeve 12 and fixed with adhesive, and the protective coating forming the optical fiber 11 and the cladding forming the reflective surface are attached to the end face of the fiber. A cap-shaped core supporter 14 is formed by peeling off a certain length from the core 13 to expose the core 13, and uses this exposed end face as a laser input end, and has a core holding hole 14a in the center of the outer peripheral surface of the tip of the exposed core 13.
It is held in The core supporter 14 is fixed to the sleeve 12, and the surface on the laser beam incident side is generally a mirror surface or a diffusing surface, and reflects or scatters the laser beam, so that the core 13
This prevents laser light from entering from other than the end face.
15 is a plug provided on the outside of the sleeve 12 and has a cap nut 18, and a receptacle 17 in which a lens 16 is provided in an adjustable position.
By screwing and connecting the lens 16 with a cap nut 18, the focused light of the lens 16 is coupled to the laser beam incident end face of the core 13 with high positional accuracy. The laser beam 20 oscillated from the laser oscillation source 19 is focused by the lens 16, and the laser beam 20 is focused at a position in front of the lens focal point and at a position close to the diameter of the core 13 so that all of the output light enters the laser beam incident end surface of the core 13. The core 13 is arranged so as to be located at a position where the optical path is converged to the same diameter. Thereby, the laser beam is guided to the core 13 of the optical fiber 11, propagated within the core 13, and sent to the handpiece 4.

By the way, there are three types of lasers for the laser oscillation source 19 for nevus treatment: argon laser, YAG laser, and ruby laser. Among these, in the case of a solid laser such as ruby laser, the oscillation method is high energy. In the case of pulsed oscillation, the laser light output is high energy, so the destructive force is large and dangerous, and it is therefore difficult to perform optical alignment of the laser oscillator 19, lens 16, and core 13. In general, another guide light (one with good directionality, continuous light emission, and high safety, such as a He-Ne laser)
is used to perform the optical alignment and align each optical component,
Since the guide light is only for convenience, it is impossible to know whether the alignment is correct for the laser beam of the laser oscillation source 19, which should be aligned, until the laser beam is actually irradiated. It is necessary to irradiate the laser beam with this energy and confirm the relative position of the guide light and the laser beam.

At that time, if a part of the high-energy laser beam from the laser oscillation source 19 does not enter the incident end face of the core 13, this laser beam will hit the core supporter 14. Further, even if a deviation occurs in the optical alignment due to vibration or impact, part or all of the high-energy laser beam may be irradiated onto the core supporter 14.

The core supporter 14 is generally made of brass or stainless steel due to the need to provide it with high processing precision and at low cost. Because it requires energy (for example, in the case of a ruby laser device, 40 Joules, irradiation time 1/1000 seconds), if the core supporter 14 is irradiated with laser light by mistake, the irradiated metal surface will easily melt. The transpiration material generated at that time attaches or evaporates to the laser beam incident end face and lens surface of the core 13 of the optical fiber 11, lowering the transmittance of the laser light, and eventually causing end face breakage, resulting in damage to the hand. There is a problem that variations occur in the distribution of the guided laser light to the piece, resulting in variations in the laser light output during treatment, which has a serious adverse effect on the therapeutic effect and makes it unusable.

Furthermore, a slight gap is provided so that the core supporter 14 does not come into contact with the core 13.

This is because when the core supporter 14 comes into contact with the core 13, the law of total internal reflection is broken, and light leaks from the contact area.In the case of high-energy laser treatment for birthmarks, the contact area of the core supporter 14 melts. This is because it will be put away.

However, due to this small gap, there is a great risk that the optical axis will shift by the amount of this gap, and if a shift occurs, partial contact between the core support 14 and the core 13 may occur, or the core The laser beam that deviates from the end face of the core 13 also reaches the rear of the core 13 and hits the core 13.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and is designed to provide a light guide path in a therapeutic laser device that utilizes high energy that can melt metal or the like when the oscillated laser light is focused by a lens or the like. When optical fiber is used as the material, optical axis misalignment may occur during optical alignment adjustment in the connector for connecting the laser oscillation source and the optical fiber, or due to vibration or shock, causing the laser beam to become attached to a part of the core supporter. It is an object of the present invention to provide an optical fiber connector for a laser device that allows laser beam transmission without adversely affecting optical components even if the light is erroneously irradiated, and that makes it difficult for optical axis deviation to occur after adjustment is completed. do.

[Summary of the invention]

That is, in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention condenses laser light from a laser oscillation source with a lens, and makes the light incident on the end face of the core of an optical fiber for guiding the laser light in a laser device that guides the laser light. In a connector for connecting the fiber to the laser oscillation source side, the optical fiber side has a core exposed portion over a predetermined length formed on the laser beam incident end side of the optical fiber, and the core is inserted into the exposed core portion side. A core supporter is provided in which the core supporter is inserted and held through a holding hole, and the surface on the laser beam arrival side is formed as an inclined surface, the core tip is made to protrude from the core supporter, and the core supporter has a hole for inserting the core. A core sleeve made of substantially the same material as the core and having a refractive index smaller than that of the core is interposed between the core and the core, and the end face of the core is arranged so that when connected to the laser oscillation source side, the light beam is directed behind the focal point of the lens. The core sleeve and the core support are arranged so that the diameter and the core diameter are approximately the same, and the exposed core is held by the core support through the core sleeve which acts as a cladding. This allows the core to be held in close contact with the core supporter, thereby ensuring that the optical axis of the core is closer to the optical axis of the laser beam than the optical axis of the laser beam against vibrations and shocks. Even if the optical axis of the core and laser beam deviates during alignment adjustment, the core end face will be behind the focal position of the laser beam, so even if the laser beam deviates from the core end face. The energy density of the laser beam is low because the light beam is in the direction of spreading, so it is difficult to cause melting or scattering due to the energy of the laser beam.In addition, the surface of the core support is an inclined surface, so that the incoming laser beam is The laser beam is reflected more diffusely, thereby preventing parts that receive the secondary reflected laser beam from being damaged by laser beam irradiation.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG. Since this apparatus is basically the same as that shown in FIG. 2, the same reference numerals in FIG. 3 are given to the same parts as in FIG.

The features of the present invention are that the input end face of the laser beam of the core 13 is located after the focal point of the lens 16;
The core supporter 14 shown in FIG. 2 has been improved by mirror-polishing and sloping its surface to better reflect the laser beam, and furthermore, the core supporter is positioned rearward from the laser beam incidence surface of the core 13. In order to accurately hold the core end face, a core sleeve is used, and a substance that efficiently reflects the laser beam is deposited on the surface of the core sleeve opposite to the laser beam incident surface. .

Conventionally, the method of inputting laser light to the input end face of the core 13 is as shown in FIG.
The laser beam is focused by a lens 16 so that the laser beam can be input to the entire input end face of the laser beam, and its energy density is reduced to a small value. In this conventional method,
The focal position of the lens 16 will be after the input end face of the core 13, and if the optical axis is misaligned, there is a risk of adversely affecting the unprotected crud, protective coating, or sleeve 12 of the connector against melting. There is.

The protective coating is generally made of plastic material such as Teflon or nylon, and the cladding may also be made of silicone. If such a material is hit by even reflected light, there is a risk of it being melted by a high-power laser beam.

Therefore, in the present invention, as a countermeasure against this problem, as shown in FIG. In order to expose the laser beam incident end surface of the core 13 to the rear of the focal position of the lens 16 and protect the outer cover end surface from the laser beam, it has a hole in the center through which the core 13 passes and is made of inexpensive material such as brass or stainless steel. A protective ring 31 made of a metal material is fixed to the peeled end surface of the outer sheath of the fiber 11. The inner diameter of the hole in the protective ring 31 is made slightly larger than the outer diameter of the core 13 so that it does not come into contact with the core 13. This is because when the protective ring 31 comes into contact with the core 13, the law of total reflection is broken, energy is absorbed at the contact portion, and the side surface of the core 13 is further damaged. Furthermore, a positioning sleeve 32 is fitted to the outer periphery of the protective coating 11b, and the core 13 is inserted into the sleeve 12 of the connector that fits and holds these aggregates.
The axis of the sleeve 12 is aligned and held with the axis of the sleeve 12. At the end of this sleeve 12,
A core supporter 33 is attached to hold the core 13 on the optical axis of the lens 16 with good positional accuracy.
The hole through which the core 13 of the core supporter 33 passes has a diameter larger than that of the core 13. This is because if the hole and the core are in contact, for example, at some point, the law of total internal reflection breaks down,
This is because energy absorption occurs at the contact portion, and core sidewall breakage progresses from the contact portion, resulting in core damage and adversely affecting light propagation.

The laser beam incident side surface of the core supporter 33 is inclined in an umbrella shape, and the material thereof may be made of mirror-finished high melting point material such as tungsten, ceramic, or stainless steel etc. Metal plating or vapor deposition is used because it reflects light well.

Furthermore, the laser beam incident end surface of the core 13 is made to protrude from the incident side surface of the core supporter 33 by a predetermined distance that does not cause any inconvenience in terms of construction, and is located behind the focal point of the lens 16 and has a spot diameter that is approximately the same as the diameter of the core 13. The core 1 is located at the optical path position of the lens 16.
By locating the three end faces, all of the laser light 20 is incident on the core entrance end face, and even if the laser light deviates from the core entrance end face, it is diffused so that the energy of the laser light is reduced at the position of the core supporter 33. The core supporter 33
This prevents phenomena such as melting and scattering from occurring even when the laser beam is received. In addition, the laser beam reflected by the core supporter 33 is further diffused by the inclined surface of the core supporter 33, resulting in a lower energy density, which makes it difficult for parts that receive the reflected light to melt. By being able to prevent this melting and scattering, it is possible to prevent staining and damage to optical components and to stably propagate laser light with the propagation efficiency as intended.

By the way, regarding the positional accuracy of the laser beam incident end face of the core 13, in the conventional method, the core supporter 14 is
Since the optical fiber 11 cannot make contact with the core 13, positioning accuracy is achieved only by adhering the protective coating of the optical fiber 11 and the sleeve 12.If the length of the optical fiber 11 with the cladding 11a and the protective coating 11b being peeled off increases, the core 13
However, in the present invention, a tubular core sleeve 34 made of substantially the same material as the core 13 whose refractive index is slightly lower than that of the core 13 is used. The exposed core 13 of the optical fiber 11 described above is
through the core sleeve 34 to cover the area from the core supporter 33 portion of the core 13 to the protective ring 31,
Further, the core sleeve 34 is fixed to the hole of the core supporter 33 by a method such as press fitting, thereby maintaining the positional accuracy of the entrance end surface of the core 13. That is, in the system of the present invention, since the refractive index of the core sleeve 34 is lower than the refractive index of the core 13, the core sleeve 34
acts as a cladding for core 13, and core 1
This is because the law of total reflection of No. 3 holds true, so even if the core 13 and the core sleeve 34 come into contact, there is no risk of light leaking.

A substance that efficiently reflects laser light is deposited on the end surface of the seven-core sleeve 34 opposite to the laser light incident surface. Therefore, even if the laser beam reflected inside the connector etc. enters the core sleeve 34 and reaches the end surface of the core sleeve 34 opposite to the incident surface, it will be reflected and the optical fiber 11
There is no adverse effect on the cladding 11a or the protective coating 11b.

In this device having such a configuration, the laser beam incident end face of the core 13 is located behind the focal position of the lens 16, and the diameter of the core end face is the same as the spot diameter of the laser light 20 focused by the lens 16. It is arranged. Moreover, a core supporter 33 that supports the core 13
is behind the laser beam incident end face of the core 13,
In addition, since the surface is an inclined surface, even if the optical axis of the laser beam 20 and the axis of the core 13 are misaligned and a part of the laser beam escapes backward, it will be reflected and the luminous flux will be Since the core supporter 33 is located in the diffusion direction and has a low energy density, it will not melt or scatter even if it receives laser light. In addition, since the laser beam incident side of the core supporter 33 is inclined in an umbrella shape, the laser beam reflected by the core supporter 33 is more diffused, so that the laser beam is reflected by the secondary reflected light. There is no need to worry about parts melting.

Further, the core 13 is supported by a core supporter 33 via a core sleeve 34.
4 acts as a clad against the core 13, so even if the core sleeve 34 is brought into close contact with the core supporter 33, the total reflection of the core 13 will not be impaired. can be held.

Therefore, there is less risk that the core 13 will be misaligned with the laser optical axis due to an external impact or the like.

In addition, since a laser beam reflective material is deposited on the end surface of the core sleeve 34 on the side of the protective ring 31,
Even if a laser beam enters the core sleeve 34, it will be reflected there, so the outer sheath of the optical fiber 11, that is, the cladding and protective coating, will be sufficiently protected, and even if leakage occurs, the protective ring 31 will be protected. Therefore, the end face of the outer sheath of the optical fiber 11 can be reliably protected.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above and shown in the drawings, and can be implemented with appropriate modifications within the scope of the gist thereof.For example, since the energy density of the incoming laser beam is low, The core support does not necessarily need to be made of a material with a high melting point, as long as it is made of a material with a certain degree of high reflection efficiency and has a mirror surface.

In addition, this device only requires adding a core sleeve to the conventional configuration, slightly changing the shape of the core supporter, and shifting the position of the core supporter and core end face to the rear of the focal point of the laser beam. This can be implemented without making any major changes to the conventional device, and therefore an inexpensive connector can be obtained.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described in detail above, the present invention focuses a laser beam from a laser oscillation source using a lens, and makes the laser beam incident on the end face of the core of an optical fiber for guiding the laser beam in a laser device that guides the laser beam. In the connector for connection with the oscillation source side, the optical fiber side has a core exposed portion over a predetermined length formed on the laser beam incident end side of the optical fiber, and a core is inserted into and held on the core exposed portion side. A core supporter is provided in which the core is inserted and held through a hole, and the surface on the laser beam arrival side is formed as an inclined surface, and the tip of the core is made to protrude from the core supporter, and the core is connected to the hole for inserting the core in the core supporter. A core sleeve made of substantially the same material as the core and having a smaller refractive index than the core is interposed between the core sleeve and the end surface of the core when connected to the laser oscillation source side. The core sleeve and the core support are in close contact with each other in such a way that the exposed core is held in the core support via the core sleeve which acts as a cladding. This makes it possible to hold the core securely in the core supporter, thereby making it difficult for the optical axis of the core to shift from the optical axis of the laser beam due to vibrations or shocks. In addition, even if the optical axis of the core and laser beam deviates during alignment adjustment, the core end face is positioned behind the focal point of the laser beam, so even if the laser beam deviates from the core end face, the luminous flux will spread. The energy density of the laser beam is low because it is located in the direction of the core supporter, so it is difficult to cause melting or scattering due to the energy of the laser beam.Also, the surface of the core supporter is an inclined surface, so that the incoming laser beam is more diffused. This prevents the components receiving the secondary reflected laser beam from being damaged by laser beam irradiation, making it difficult for the core and laser optical axis to become misaligned after alignment adjustment. Even if the optical axis were to shift, the laser beam would reach the core supporter and other parts after spreading in the direction of diffusion, so the energy density would be low, making them less likely to be damaged by laser beam damage. Therefore, it is possible to provide an optical fiber connector that is highly reliable and has a simple structure without reducing laser light propagation efficiency.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the configuration of the laser treatment device;
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of a conventional optical fiber connector, and FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of essential parts showing an embodiment of the present invention. 11... Optical fiber, 11a... Clad, 11b
...Protective coating, 12...Sleeve, 13...Core, 16
...Lens, 31...Protection ring, 32...Positioning sleeve, 33...Core supporter, 34...Core sleeve.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. For connection with the laser oscillation source side of the optical fiber in a laser device that condenses the laser light from the laser oscillation source with a lens and guides the laser light by making it incident from the end face of the core of the optical fiber for guiding the laser light. In this connector, the optical fiber side has a core on the laser beam incident end side of the optical fiber exposed for a predetermined length, has a hole for inserting and holding the exposed core, and has an inclined surface on the laser beam entrance side. The core is inserted into the core insertion hole of the core supporter formed in the core supporter, and the tip of the core is held so as to protrude from the core supporter, and the core is inserted between the core insertion hole of the core supporter and the core. A core sleeve having a small refractive index and made of substantially the same material as the core is interposed, and the core end face is connected to the laser oscillation source side,
An optical fiber connector characterized in that the optical fiber connector is configured to be aligned at a position behind the focal point of the lens where the diameter of the light flux and the diameter of the core are substantially the same.