Gold nanorod saturable absorber for passive mode-locking at 1 mu m wavelength

Gold nanorods (GNRs) were used as a saturable absorber (SA) for passive mode-locking at 1 mu m wavelength. The GNR-SA film was fabricated by mixing GNRs with sodium carboxymethylcellulose. The longitudinal surface plasmon resonance absorption of GNRs was used to induce mode-locking. By using the GNR-SA film, stable passive mode-locking at 1039 nm was experimentally demonstrated in an ytterbium-doped fiber laser cavity pumped by a 980 nm laser diode. The laser produced similar to 440 ps pulses with a repetition rate of 36.6 MHz and an average output power of similar to 1.25 mW for a pump power of similar to 82 mW