Download or read book Carbon nanotubes and graphene for photonic applications written by A. Martinez and published by Elsevier Inc. Chapters. This book was released on 2013-08-31 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fiber laser technology is attracting a great deal of attention due to its numerous applications in fields as diverse as micromachining, biology and medical sciences or telecommunications and its potential as a substitute for solid-state lasers in industrial and technological applications. Fiber lasers are also exciting from the scientific point of view as they are an excellent platform to further study and understand nonlinear optical phenomena. In this chapter, we review the impact of nano-materials, such as graphene and carbon nanotubes, in advancing fiber laser technology. Both graphene and carbon nanotubes present a highly nonlinear optical response, with a high third order susceptibility and saturable absorption. Here, we discuss how these properties can be used to achieve pulse operation using a technique known as mode-locking and how these two materials compare to other mode-locking mechanisms in terms of their ability to achieve pulse operation, the stability of the mode-locked lasers and their long-term reliability.