Optically driven deposition of single-walled carbon-nanotube saturable absorbers on optical fiber end-faces

Optical radiation propagating in a fiber is used to deposit commercially available, single-walled carbon nanotubes on cleaved optical fiber end faces and fiber connectors. Thermophoresis caused by heating due to optical absorption is considered to be a likely candidate responsible for the deposition...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optics express 2007-07, Vol.15 (15), p.9176-9183
Main Authors: Nicholson, J W, Windeler, R S, Digiovanni, D J
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Optical radiation propagating in a fiber is used to deposit commercially available, single-walled carbon nanotubes on cleaved optical fiber end faces and fiber connectors. Thermophoresis caused by heating due to optical absorption is considered to be a likely candidate responsible for the deposition process. Single-walled carbon nanotubes have a fast saturable absorption over a broad wavelength range, and the demonstrated technique is an extremely simple and inexpensive method for making fiber-integrated, saturable absorbers for passive modelocking of fiber lasers. Pulse widths of 247 fs are demonstrated from an erbium-doped fiber laser operating at 1560 nm, and 137 fs pulses are demonstrated from an amplified Yb-doped fiber laser at 1070 nm.
ISSN:1094-4087
1094-4087
DOI:10.1364/oe.15.009176