Dynamics of carbon nanotube-based mode-locking fiber lasers

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Carbon nanotube (CNT) can work as excellent saturable absorber (SA) due to its advantages of fast recovery, low saturation intensity, polarization insensitivity, deep modulation depth, broad operation bandwidth, outstanding environmental stability, and affordable fabrication. Its successful application as SA has promoted the development of scientific research and practical application of mode-locked fiber lasers. Besides, mode-locked fiber laser constitutes an ideal platform for investigating soliton dynamics which exhibit profound nonlinear optical dynamics and excitation ubiquitous in many fields. Up to now, a variety of soliton dynamics have been observed. Among these researches, CNT-SA is a key component that suppresses the environmental perturbation and optimizes the laser system to reveal the true highly stochastic and non-repetitive unstable phenomena of the initial self-starting lasing process. This review is intended to provide an up-to-date introduction to the development of CNT-SA based ultrafast fiber lasers, with emphasis on recent progress in real-time buildup dynamics of solitons in CNT-SA mode-locked fiber lasers. It is anticipated that study of dynamics of solitons can not only further reveal the physical nature of solitons, but also optimize the performance of ultrafast fiber lasers and eventually expand their applications in different fields.</jats:p>

Carbon nanotube mode-locked fiber lasers: recent progress and perspectives

“…Unveiling the complex evolving dynamics can not only shed new light on the underlying physical mechanism but also can be conducive to optimize the cavity design. For a more comprehensive review on this subject, please see the recent publication in Nanophotonics [285].…”

TiB2 nanoparticles with a broadband nonlinear response for ultrafast pulse generation

“…Similarly, carbonbased materials, including carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene (GR), and mesoporous carbon nanospheres (MCNs), have been used as the optical modulators due to their unique nonlinear properties. [11][12][13][14] Nevertheless, the operating wavelength needs to be matched through optimizing the diameter of CNTs, and the modulation depth of GR and the damage threshold of MCNs still need to be improved. Recently, two-dimensional semiconductors such as transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) and black phosphorus (BP) have presented nonlinear saturable absorption and have been applied for ultrafast pulse generation.…”

Gold Nanocluster‐Modified Titanium Nitride for Ultrafast Photonics Applications

“…[ 1–5 ] Therefore, it is greatly significant to study the preparation of these materials and carry out the research on their characteristics. Although there have been multiple nanomaterials investigated, such as carbon nanotube, [ 6 ] graphene, [ 7 ] ferroferric‐oxide, [ 8 ] and zinc oxide, [ 9 ] it is only just beginning to explore the nonlinear optical properties and ultrafast photonics application of the novel nanomaterials. Recently, transition metal nitrides have gained extensive interest because of their refractory quality and tailorable optical properties.…”