Degradation of optical properties of a film-type single-wall carbon nanotubes saturable absorber (SWNT-SA) with an Er-doped all-fiber laser

Single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are promising materials for saturable absorbers (SAs) in mode-locked lasers. However it has been widely recognized that the degradation of optical properties of film-type SWNTs used in femtosecond mode-locked lasers limits the achievable long-term stability of su...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optics express 2012-06, Vol.20 (12), p.12966-12974
Main Authors: Ryu, Sung Yoon, Kim, Kyung-Soo, Kim, Jungwon, Kim, Soohyun
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are promising materials for saturable absorbers (SAs) in mode-locked lasers. However it has been widely recognized that the degradation of optical properties of film-type SWNTs used in femtosecond mode-locked lasers limits the achievable long-term stability of such lasers. In this paper, we study the degradation of optical properties of SWNT-SA fabricated as sandwich type using HiPCO SWNTs with an Er-doped all-fiber laser. The thresholds of laser pump power are examined to avoid the damage of the SWNT-SA. Based on the proposed analysis, it is shown that all-fiber laser pulses of 300 fs pulse width, 3.85 mW average output power, 211.7 MW/cm² peak intensity and 69.9 MHz repetition rate can be reliably generated without any significant damage to the SWNT-SA film.
ISSN:1094-4087
1094-4087
DOI:10.1364/OE.20.012966