title: Sub-100 fs single-walled carbon nanotube saturable absorber mode-locked Yb-laser operation near 1 microm.
abstract: Transmission- and reflection-type single-walled carbon nanotube saturable absorbers (SWCNT-SAs) were designed and fabricated for passive mode-locking of bulk lasers in the 1 microm spectral range. Mode-locked laser operation based on a diffusion-bonded Yb:KYW/KYW crystal was demonstrated, and pulses as short as 83 fs and 140 fs were achieved applying reflection-type and transmission-type SWCNT-SA, respectively. The nonlinear parameters of the absorbers were measured to be in close vicinity to those of a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror for the same wavelength range. Mode-locking performance with SWCNT-SAs and the SESAM was compared utilizing the same cavity, with the SESAM resulting in only slightly shorter pulses of 66 fs duration. The nearly identical performance indicates that well-optimized SWCNT-SAs can substitute SESAMs even in the 1 microm region.
authors.affiliation: Max Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy, Max-Born-Str 2a, D-12489 Berlin, Germany. schmidt@mbi-berlin.de
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rivier
authors.forename: Won Bae
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Jong Hyuk
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Yim
authors.forename: Sun Young
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Soonil
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Fabian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rotermund
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rytz
authors.forename: Günter
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Steinmeyer
authors.forename: Valentin
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Petrov
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Griebner
mesh_terms: D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D053844:Lasers, Solid-State; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D015018:Ytterbium / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D015018:Ytterbium