A free-standing film made of a single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT)-polyvinylalchol (PVA) composite material was fabricated by pretreatment of SWCNTs with ultrasonication in water with the aid of a surfactant that promotes unbundling of aggregated SWNCTs. Characterizations using optical absorption spectroscopy, optical microscopy, and micro-Raman spectroscopy revealed that the film has an optical absorption at approximately 1.5 mum, suitable for the occurrence of saturable absorption (a promising nonlinear optical effect) in optical telecommunication wavelengths, and that SWCNTs in the film are dispersed uniformly with a low scattering loss. The saturable absorption properties of the film at 1.56 mum measured using the Z-scan method was basically similar to those of the SWCNTs deposited on quartz glass, indicating that the free-standing SWCNT-PVA film is as promising as the SWCNT film deposited directly on a substrate. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.