Control of Nonlinear Optical Properties of the Carbon Nanotubes Saturable Absorber with Electrochemical Gating

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) are known for their high nonlinear optical response including optical limiting, harmonic generation, four-wave mixing and absorption saturation [1]. The later one is a subject of intense investigations for the last decade due to successful implementation of the carbon nanotubes saturable absorbers (SA) in fiber lasers for the noise filtering and ultra-short pulse generation. It was also shown that linear optical properties of the SWCNTs can be effectively controlled by the electrochemical gating. Here for the first time we impregnate SWCNTs by electrolyte to tune the Fermi level of the samples and utilize the electrochemical gating to control the absorption saturation of the SWCNTs.