Wideband-tuneable, nanotube mode-locked, fibre laser

被引：585

作者：

Wang, F. ^{[1
]}

Rozhin, A. G. ^{[1
]}

Scardaci, V. ^{[1
]}

Sun, Z. ^{[1
]}

Hennrich, F. ^{[2
]}

White, I. H. ^{[1
]}

Milne, W. I. ^{[1
]}

Ferrari, A. C. ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] Univ Cambridge, Dept Engn, Cambridge CB3 0FA, England

[2] Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Inst Nanotechnol, D-76021 Karlsruhe, Germany

来源：

NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY | 2008年 / 3卷 / 12期

基金：

英国工程与自然科学研究理事会;

关键词：

D O I：

10.1038/nnano.2008.312

中图分类号：

TB3 [工程材料学];

学科分类号：

0805 ; 080502 ;

摘要：

Ultrashort-pulse lasers with spectral tuning capability have widespread applications in fields such as spectroscopy, biomedical research and telecommunications(1-3). Mode-locked fibre lasers are convenient and powerful sources of ultrashort pulses(4), and the inclusion of a broadband saturable absorber as a passive optical switch inside the laser cavity may offer tuneability over a range of wavelengths(5). Semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors are widely used in fibre lasers(4-6), but their operating range is typically limited to a few tens of nanometres(7,8), and their fabrication can be challenging in the 1.3-1.5 mu m wavelength region used for optical communications(9,10). Single-walled carbon nanotubes are excellent saturable absorbers because of their subpicosecond recovery time, low saturation intensity, polarization insensitivity, and mechanical and environmental robustness(11-16). Here, we engineer a nanotube-polycarbonate film with a wide bandwidth (> 300 nm) around 1.55 mu m, and then use it to demonstrate a 2.4 ps Er3+-doped fibre laser that is tuneable from 1,518 to 1,558 nm. In principle, different diameters and chiralities of nanotubes could be combined to enable compact, mode-locked fibre lasers that are tuneable over a much broader range of wavelengths than other systems.

引用

页码：738 / 742

页数：5

共 35 条

[21] Optically driven deposition of single-walled carbon-nanotube saturable absorbers on optical fiber end-faces [J].