Single-walled carbon nanotubes on side polished fiber as a universal saturable absorber for various laser output states

• Published in: Current applied physics Vol. 17; no. 1; pp. 37 - 40
• Main Authors: Ko, Jaekwon, Jeong, Hwanseong, Choi, Sun Young, Rotermund, Fabian, Yeom, Dong-Il, Kim, Byoung Yoon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.01.2017; 한국물리학회
• Subjects: Mode locked lasers; Passive fiber lasers; Q-switched lasers; Single-walled carbon nanotubes; 물리학; Mode locked lasers; Passive fiber lasers; Q-switched lasers; Single-walled carbon nanotubes
• ISSN: 1567-1739; 1878-1675
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cap.2016.10.019

We demonstrated four different laser operational states in the same passive fiber ring laser cavity by controlling solely the polarization state in a saturable absorber. The demonstrated laser operational states were continuous wave, mode-locking, Q-switching, and Q-switched mode-locking. The saturable absorber was fabricated by spin-coating a single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT)/polymer composite on a side polished fiber providing enhanced nonlinear interaction with the SWCNT. The wide tuning range of the saturable absorber allows the simple means to generate different forms of laser output from a single laser cavity. •Four different laser states are demonstrated in a single fiber laser cavity.•Based on SWCNT saturable absorber with widely tunable polarization dependence.•Linear and nonlinear transmission of SWCNT saturable absorber are analyzed.