title: Ultrashort pulse-generation by saturable absorber mirrors based on polymer-embedded carbon nanotubes.
abstract: We demonstrate passive mode locking of solid-state lasers by saturable absorbers based on carbon nanotubes (CNT). These novel absorbers are fabricated by spin-coating a polymer doped with CNTs onto commercial dielectric laser-mirrors. We obtain broadband artificial saturable absorber mirrors with ultrafast recovery times without the use of epitaxial growth techniques and the well-established spin-coating process allows the fabrication of devices based on a large variety of substrate materials. First results on passive mode locking of Nd:glass and Er/Yb:glass lasers are discussed. In the case of Er/Yb:glass we report the to our knowledge shortest pulse generated in a self-starting configuration based on Er/Yb:bulk-glass: 68 fs (45 fs Fourier-limit) at 1570 nm wavelength at a pulse-repetition rate of 85 MHz.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schibli
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Minoshima
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kataura
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Itoga
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Minami
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kazaoui
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Miyashita
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tokumoto
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sakakibara