Graphene is at the center of a significant research effort. Near-ballistic transport at room temperature and high mobility make it a potential material for nanoelectronics. Its electronic and mechanical properties are also ideal for micro and nanomechanical systems, thin-film transistors and transparent and conductive composites and electrodes. Here we exploit the optoelectronic properties of graphene to realize an ultrafast laser. A graphene-polymer composite is fabricated using wet-chemistry techniques. Pauli blocking following intense illumination results in saturable absorption, independent of wavelength. This is used to passively mode-lock an Erbium-doped fibre laser working at 1559nm, with a 5.24nm spectral bandwidth and ~460fs pulse duration, paving the way to graphene-based photonics.
@article{arxiv.0909.0457,
title = {Graphene Mode-Locked Ultrafast Laser},
author = {Z. Sun and T. Hasan and F. Torrisi and D. Popa and G. Privitera and F. Wang and F. Bonaccorso and D. M. Basko and A. C. Ferrari},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0909.0457},
year = {2010}
}