title: Polymer saturable absorber materials in the 1.5 microm band using poly-methyl-methacrylate and polystyrene with single-wall carbon nanotubes and their application to a femtosecond laser.
abstract: We report saturable absorber materials in the 1.5 microm band that consist of poly-methyl-methacrylate (PMMA) and polystyrene (PS) polymers with single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). A very uniform dispersion of SWNT in PMMA and PS polymers has been realized by using chlorobenzene or tetrahydrofuran as a dispersion solvent. These materials, which are as thick as 1 mm, are easily optically polished on both surfaces. This was difficult to achieve with previous thin-film materials. By incorporating PMMA/SWNT as a saturable absorber, a 171 fs pulse is successfully generated in a passively mode-locked fiber laser.
authors.affiliation: Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8577, Japan. nakazawa@rlec.tohoku.ac.jp
authors.forename: Masataka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakazawa
authors.forename: Seiji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakahara
authors.forename: Toshihiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hirooka
authors.forename: Masato
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: Toshikuni
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kaino
authors.forename: Kyoji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Komatsu