Ultrashort pulse fiber lasers are used in a broad range of the areas such as cutting and engraving of the materials, optical communications, sensors, spectroscopy, medicine. One of the main parts of the fiber laser is self saturable absorber mirror. It is used for the generation of ultrashort pulses by mode locking. At present, mostly semiconducting saturable absorber mirrors (SESAM) are used. Large modulation depth, low saturation fluence, fast recovery can be achieved by using such devices. However, SESAM‘s are expensive, inflexible, bulky and works only in a narrow wavelength range. Therefore alternative solutions employing novel saturable absorber materials are highly appreciated.
At the present sp2 nanocarbons such as graphene and carbon nanotubes as well as group IB metal nanoparticles (Au, Ag, Cu) are under considerable interests as potentially new self saturable absorber mirror materials. In this study combination of these two materials will be done by using modern thin film deposition methods. In such a way advantages of the sp2 nanocarbons and plasmonic nanoparticles will be merged. While disadvantages will be eliminated. In the proposed research carbon nanocomposites with embedded group IB metal nanoparticles as well as their multilayer structures will be deposited and studied as functional layers for saturable absorber mirrors applied for fiber lasers.
Therefore, the aim of the project is deposition and study of the amorphous and/or nanocrystalline sp2 carbon based nanocomposites with embedded plasmonic nanoparticles for applications in fiber laser saturable absorber mirrors.
Project funding:
Projects funded by the Research Council of Lithuania (RCL), Projects carried out by researchers’ teams
Project results:
5 scientific articles in foreign journals with impact factor. New technology created.
Period of project implementation: 2017-10-01 - 2019-12-31
Project coordinator: Kaunas University of Technology
Project partners: Company "Ekspla"
