Degradation of optical properties of a film-type single-wall carbon nanotubes saturable absorber (SWNT-SA) with an Er-doped all-fiber laser.

Single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are promising materials for saturable absorbers (SAs) in mode-locked lasers. However it has been widely recognized that the degradation of optical properties of film-type SWNTs used in femtosecond mode-locked lasers limits the achievable long-term stability of such lasers. In this paper, we study the degradation of optical properties of SWNT-SA fabricated as sandwich type using HiPCO SWNTs with an Er-doped all-fiber laser. The thresholds of laser pump power are examined to avoid the damage of the SWNT-SA. Based on the proposed analysis, it is shown that all-fiber laser pulses of 300 fs pulse width, 3.85 mW average output power, 211.7 MW/cm² peak intensity and 69.9 MHz repetition rate can be reliably generated without any significant damage to the SWNT-SA film.