Single walled carbon nanotube–borosilicate glass composite as broadband near infrared emitter for multifunctional photonic applications

Near infrared fluorescence was observed from single walled carbon nanotube–borosilicate glass composite around 0.84–2.03 μm with 325 nm laser excitation. Band gap fluorescence of SWCNT bundles along with defect related fluorescence from SiO2 structure were the source of the NIR emissions of the composite. The emission spectra was 1185 nm wide that contains three main transmission windows for fiber optic telecommunications. The results strongly indicate high potentiality of this material in broadband fiber optic telecommunications and fabrication of NIR tunable lasers.