Open AccessOptically driven deposition of single-walled carbon-nanotube saturable absorbers on optical fiber end-faces
Author(s) -
J.W. Nicholson,
R.S. Windeler,
D. J. DiGiovanni
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.15.009176
Subject(s) - materials science , saturable absorption , fiber laser , carbon nanotube , optics , optoelectronics , optical fiber , fiber , hard clad silica optical fiber , dispersion shifted fiber , laser , photonic crystal fiber , polarization maintaining optical fiber , absorption (acoustics) , wavelength , fiber optic sensor , nanotechnology , composite material , physics
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.