Carbon nanotube and Graphene for Photonic Applications

We review the optical properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene and discuss how those properties can be used in photonic applications. In particular, we will give an overview of the benefits of using their highly nonlinear optical response in fiber lasers and other nonlinear fiber optic devices. Both graphene and CNTs exhibit high third order susceptibility and a broadband saturable absorption with sub-picosecond response. We will discuss the advantages and limitations of using the saturable absorption of carbon nanotubes and graphene for the passive mode-locking of fiber lasers, introduce the different methods that we have developed to integrate these materials in the fiber system and summarize the main contributions of these materials towards advancing fiber laser technology. In addition, these materials also exhibit an extremely high third order susceptibility which is responsible for nonlinear processes such as four wave mixing (FWM), Kerr focusing and third harmonic generation (THG) of great interest for optical switching and wavelength conversion. The large absorption of CNTs and graphene however limits the dimensions of these devices and, thus, their applicability. We review our efforts towards enhancing and exploiting the nonlinearity of CNT and graphene fiber optics devices.