Sub-100 fs single-walled carbon nanotube saturable absorber mode-locked Yb-laser operation near 1 microm.
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.
Schmidt
Andreas
A
Max Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy, Max-Born-Str 2a, D-12489 Berlin, Germany. schmidt@mbi-berlin.de
Rivier
Simon
S
Cho
Won Bae
WB
Yim
Jong Hyuk
JH
Choi
Sun Young
SY
Lee
Soonil
S
Rotermund
Fabian
F
Rytz
Daniel
D
Steinmeyer
Günter
G
Petrov
Valentin
V
Griebner
Uwe
U
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*
D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D015018:Ytterbium