ИСТИНА

We report that combined acid and low power non-destructive laser treatment of the free standing single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) synthesized by the floating catalyst (aerosol) method enables the increase of the film optical transmittance by 2% across the visible range and double digit increase of the saturable absorber characteristics at infrared region calculated by theoretical approximation of z-scan results using accurate equations. Specifically, at the wavelength of 795 nm, we demonstrate the increase of the saturable absorption coefficient by 26%, the decrease in the saturation intensity by 20%, and increase saturable/non-saturable loss ratio by 35% because of the treatment. Our analysis indicates that with the performed treatment one can significantly improve the nonlinear optical properties of free standing SWNT-based ultrafast saturable absorbers.