Broadband single-walled carbon nanotubes absorber for solid-state ultrafast lasers

Abstract

The single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) absorber was fabricated by vertical evaporation method. Mode locked picosecond Nd doped solid state lasers operating at 1.00 and 1.34 μm and Tm doped solid state laser at 2 μm with SWCNT absorbers were demonstrated, respectively. Watt level average output powers of continuous wave mode locking were obtained. The operational bandwidth of 1 μm is broader than other saturable absorbers fabricated by using other types of materials.