ABSTRACT
We report a substantial increase in the heat resistance in a connector-type single-wall carbon nanotube (SWNT) saturable absorber by sealing SWNT/P3HT composite with siloxane. By applying the saturable absorber to a passively mode-locked Er fiber laser, we successfully demonstrated 280 fs, 31 mW pulse generation with a fivefold improvement in heat resistance.
Subject(s)
Fiber Optic Technology/instrumentation , Lasers , Nanotechnology/instrumentation , Nanotubes, Carbon/chemistry , Organoselenium Compounds/chemistry , Siloxanes/chemistry , Absorption , Equipment Design , Equipment Failure Analysis , Nanotubes, Carbon/ultrastructure , Thermal ConductivityABSTRACT
We successfully fabricated a cascadable film-type single-wall carbon nanotube (SWNT) saturable absorber coated on aromatic polyamide film, in which the saturable absorption effect can be controlled with the number of films. A conductive polymer P3HT (poly-3-hexylthiophene) was adopted to obtain a uniform SWNT solution. We applied saturable absorber films to a passively mode-locked fiber laser and successfully generated a 113 fs, 42 MHz pulse by inserting two film layers between fiber connectors in the cavity.
ABSTRACT
We present a 1.07 microm all-fiber femtosecond soliton laser employing a film-type saturable absorber with a P3HT (poly-3-hexylthiophene) incorporated SWNT coated on polyimide film. We optimized the laser cavity as a dispersion-managed soliton laser with photonic crystal fiber (PCF) as an anomalous dispersion fiber at 1.07 microm. As a result, a 131 fs, 33 MHz pulse was successfully generated with a simple laser configuration.
Subject(s)
Fiber Optic Technology/instrumentation , Lasers , Membranes, Artificial , Nanotubes/chemistry , Organoselenium Compounds/chemistry , Equipment Design , Equipment Failure Analysis , Miniaturization , Nanotubes/ultrastructure , Reproducibility of Results , Sensitivity and SpecificityABSTRACT
We fabricated a fiber-connector-type saturable absorber in which SWNTs and P3HT (poly-3-hexylthiophene) were coated on the fiber connector end. This saturable absorber allowed us to realize a short laser cavity length. We used a soliton cavity configuration to generate the shortest pulse (147 fs) at the highest repetition rate (51 MHz) yet obtained with carbon nanotubes (CNT) related saturable absorbers.
