Preparation of flexible low-loss ABS/Ag-coated terahertz hollow waveguide by plasma treatment and study on its transmission reliability
The performance of ABS/Ag-coated terahertz hollow waveguide(HWG)was improved through plasma treatment of the ABS structural tube.The adhesion of the silver(Ag)film to the ABS tube was enhanced from level 5 to level 2 after plasma treatment.The 4.2 mm bore waveguide sample treated with plasma has a more uniform and denser silver film than the untreated sample,which contributes to the reduction of transmission losses from 0.72 dB/m to 0.70 dB/m at 0.3 THz and 1.47 dB/m to 1.44 dB/m at 0.1 THz,respectively.After 200 hours of hydrothermal ag-ing and 16 cycles of high and low temperature cycling testing,the straight loss of the HWG sample treated with plasma increased by less than 0.1 dB/m,while the untreated sample underwent an increase of more than 1.0 dB/m.The results indicate that the ABS/Ag-coated HWG fabricated by plasma treatment has lower loss,higher reliability and better anti-aging performance compared with the untreated sample.It can be potentially used for establishment of next-generation communication,sensing,and THz imaging systems.