Multiwalled carbon nanotubes for all-optical switching

Recently, ultrafast nonlinear optical responses of single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in suspensions and in films have been investigated intensively. Transient photobleaching has been observed with femtosecond laser pulses at photon energies of 0.8 similar to 1.1 eV (wavelengths = 1100 similar to 1550 nm), resonant with the lowest interband transitions of semiconducting SWCNTs. Here, we report both absorptive and refractive nonlinearities in a film of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) grown mainly along the direction perpendicular to the surface of quartz substrate. Such MWCNT films are prepared by a method of plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. By employing Z-scans with 180-fs laser pulses at wavelengths ranging from 720 to 1550 nm, we have observed that both absorptive and refractive nonlinearities are of negative, More importantly, the degenerate pump-probe measurement reveals an ultrafast recovery time of similar to I ps. In addition, we also present a demonstration that the ultrafast nonlinear optical properties can be manipulated by a hybrid system in which MWCNTs are coated with ZnO nanciparticles. At wavelengths of interest, it is known that ZnO possesses three-photon (or four-photon) absorption, which is of positive sign and can be used to balance off the negative nonlinearity of MWCNTs.