Saturable absorber using single wall carbon nanotube-poly (vinylalcohol) deposited by the vertical evaporation technique

Abstract

We employed a vertical evaporation technique to fabricate saturable absorbers by embedding single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) in polymer (vinylalcohol). Two fast recovery time constants, 250 fs and 1.13 ps, respectively, were measured for the absorbers using a transient absorption experimental setup. The saturation intensity of the absorber was found to be 300-400 mu J/cm(2) at 1060 nm, and a modulation depth as high as 3.5% was achieved. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.