Highly stable femtosecond pulse generation enabled by the indium tin oxide nanocrystals

The ultrafast third-order optical nonlinearity of indium tin oxide nanocrystals (ITO NCs) and their application in femtosecond laser generation have been investigated experimentally. The ITO NCs exhibit a large modulation depth of & SIM;25%, nonlinear refractive behavior with self-focusing, ultrafast carrier recovery time of & SIM;300 fs, and high damage threshold of & SIM;1.16 TW cm(-2), and the stable femtosecond Er-doped fiber laser can be delivered with a signal-to-noise ratio over 80 dB modulated by the ITO NCs successfully. The experimental results indicate that the ITO NCs can be excellent ultrafast nonlinear optical materials for developing highly stable photonic and optoelectronic devices.