Scientists Use Electrochemistry to Tune Nonlinear Optical Properties of Nanotubes

An international team led by researchers from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) has shown that the nonlinear optical response of carbon nanotubes — specifically, saturable absorption — can be controlled by electrochemical gating. The researchers applied their discovery to the design of a device for controlling laser pulse duration. Saturable absorption is a nonlinear optical effect where the absorption coefficient decreases with the increasing power of incident light. Thus, the material becomes more transparent under intense laser radiation. “We showed that [the] magnitude of the nonlinear transparency can be controlled by placing the material in an electrochemical cell,” researcher...