Revealing the nature of morphological changes in carbon nanotube-polymer saturable absorber under high-power laser irradiation

Composites of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and water-soluble polymers (WSP) are the focus of significant worldwide research due to a number of applications in biotechnology and photonics, particularly for ultrashort pulse generation. Despite the unique possibility of constructing non-linea...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chernysheva, Maria, Al Alraimi, Mohammed, Rance, Graham A., Weston, Nicola J., Shi, Baogui, Saied, Sayah, Sullivan, John L., Marsh, Nicholas, Rozhin, Aleksey
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2018
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52733/
_version_ 1848798795894095872
author Chernysheva, Maria
Al Alraimi, Mohammed
Rance, Graham A.
Weston, Nicola J.
Shi, Baogui
Saied, Sayah
Sullivan, John L.
Marsh, Nicholas
Rozhin, Aleksey
author_facet Chernysheva, Maria
Al Alraimi, Mohammed
Rance, Graham A.
Weston, Nicola J.
Shi, Baogui
Saied, Sayah
Sullivan, John L.
Marsh, Nicholas
Rozhin, Aleksey
author_sort Chernysheva, Maria
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Composites of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and water-soluble polymers (WSP) are the focus of significant worldwide research due to a number of applications in biotechnology and photonics, particularly for ultrashort pulse generation. Despite the unique possibility of constructing non-linear optical SWNT-WSP composites with controlled optical properties, their thermal degradation threshold and limit of operational power remain unexplored. In this study, we discover the nature of the SWNT-polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film thermal degradation and evaluate the modification of the composite properties under continuous high-power ultrashort pulse laser operation. Using high-precision optical microscopy, micro-Raman spectroscopy, we have examined SWNT-PVA films before and after continuous laser radiation exposure (up to 40 hours) with a maximum optical fluence of 2.3 mJ x cm2. We demonstrate that high-intensity laser radiation results in measurable changes in the composition and morphology of the SWNT-PVA film due to efficient heat transfer from SWNTs to the polymer matrix. The saturable absorber modification does not affect the laser operational performance. We anticipate our work to be a starting point for more sophisticated research aimed at the enhancement of SWNT-PVA films fabrication for their operation as reliable saturable absorbers in high-power ultrafast lasers.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T20:25:27Z
format Article
id nottingham-52733
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-14T20:25:27Z
publishDate 2018
publisher Nature Publishing Group
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-527332020-05-08T09:15:10Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52733/ Revealing the nature of morphological changes in carbon nanotube-polymer saturable absorber under high-power laser irradiation Chernysheva, Maria Al Alraimi, Mohammed Rance, Graham A. Weston, Nicola J. Shi, Baogui Saied, Sayah Sullivan, John L. Marsh, Nicholas Rozhin, Aleksey Composites of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and water-soluble polymers (WSP) are the focus of significant worldwide research due to a number of applications in biotechnology and photonics, particularly for ultrashort pulse generation. Despite the unique possibility of constructing non-linear optical SWNT-WSP composites with controlled optical properties, their thermal degradation threshold and limit of operational power remain unexplored. In this study, we discover the nature of the SWNT-polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film thermal degradation and evaluate the modification of the composite properties under continuous high-power ultrashort pulse laser operation. Using high-precision optical microscopy, micro-Raman spectroscopy, we have examined SWNT-PVA films before and after continuous laser radiation exposure (up to 40 hours) with a maximum optical fluence of 2.3 mJ x cm2. We demonstrate that high-intensity laser radiation results in measurable changes in the composition and morphology of the SWNT-PVA film due to efficient heat transfer from SWNTs to the polymer matrix. The saturable absorber modification does not affect the laser operational performance. We anticipate our work to be a starting point for more sophisticated research aimed at the enhancement of SWNT-PVA films fabrication for their operation as reliable saturable absorbers in high-power ultrafast lasers. Nature Publishing Group 2018-05-10 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52733/1/Scientific%20Reports%202018.pdf Chernysheva, Maria, Al Alraimi, Mohammed, Rance, Graham A., Weston, Nicola J., Shi, Baogui, Saied, Sayah, Sullivan, John L., Marsh, Nicholas and Rozhin, Aleksey (2018) Revealing the nature of morphological changes in carbon nanotube-polymer saturable absorber under high-power laser irradiation. Scientific Reports, 8 . p. 7491. ISSN 2045-2322 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-24734-z doi::10.1038/s41598-018-24734-z doi::10.1038/s41598-018-24734-z
spellingShingle Chernysheva, Maria
Al Alraimi, Mohammed
Rance, Graham A.
Weston, Nicola J.
Shi, Baogui
Saied, Sayah
Sullivan, John L.
Marsh, Nicholas
Rozhin, Aleksey
Revealing the nature of morphological changes in carbon nanotube-polymer saturable absorber under high-power laser irradiation
title Revealing the nature of morphological changes in carbon nanotube-polymer saturable absorber under high-power laser irradiation
title_full Revealing the nature of morphological changes in carbon nanotube-polymer saturable absorber under high-power laser irradiation
title_fullStr Revealing the nature of morphological changes in carbon nanotube-polymer saturable absorber under high-power laser irradiation
title_full_unstemmed Revealing the nature of morphological changes in carbon nanotube-polymer saturable absorber under high-power laser irradiation
title_short Revealing the nature of morphological changes in carbon nanotube-polymer saturable absorber under high-power laser irradiation
title_sort revealing the nature of morphological changes in carbon nanotube-polymer saturable absorber under high-power laser irradiation
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52733/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52733/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52733/