Graphene-gold supercapacitor as a voltage controlled saturable absorber for femtosecond pulse generation

We report, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, use of a graphene-gold supercapacitor as a voltage controlled fast saturable absorber for femtosecond pulse generation. The unique design involving only one graphene electrode lowers the insertion loss of the device, in comparison with capacitor designs with two graphene electrodes. Furthermore, use of the high-dielectric electrolyte allows reversible, adjustable control of the absorption level up to the visible region with low bias voltages of only a few volts (0-2 V). The fast saturable absorber action of the graphene-gold supercapacitor was demonstrated inside a multipass-cavity Cr:forsterite laser to generate nearly transform-limited, sub-100 fs pulses at a pulse repetition rate of 4.51 MHz at 1.24 mu m. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America