Carbon nanotube-incorporated sol–gel glass for high-speed modulation of intracavity absorption of fiber lasers

Abstract

We prepared carbon nanotube (CNT)-incorporated sol–gel glass at a low temperature guaranteeing homogeneous CNT dispersion and intact nonlinearity of the CNTs for ultrafast optic devices. Significant defects and CNT agglomeration were avoided by optimizing the process steps, including stabilized CNT dispersion in dimethylformamide and the gelation of silica sol. After verifying undamaged nano-morphologies and optical properties of the enclosed CNTs via nonlinear absorption checks, we successfully demonstrated all-fiber, mode-locked laser modulating the intracavity absorption with the CNT-incorporated glass transferred onto a laser component. Resultant spectral width and repetition rate of the laser pulse output were 1.1 nm and 2.96 MHz, respectively.