Ultrafast lasers mode-locked by nanotubes and graphene

Ultrafast lasers play an increasingly important role in many applications. Nanotubes and graphene have emerged as promising novel saturable absorbers for passive mode-locking. Here, we review recent progress on the exploitation of these two carbon nanomaterials in ultrafast photonics.

► Various ultrafast lasers mode-locked by nanotube based saturable absorbers have been reviewed in detail. ► Recent results on graphene enabled ultrafast lasers also have been reviewed. ► We present our outlook on this field (i.e. ultrafast lasers mode-locked nanotubes and graphene).