Graphene and the following derivative 2D materials have been demonstrated to exhibit rich distinct optoelectronic properties, such as broadband optical response, strong and tunable light–mater interactions, and fast relaxations in the flexible nanoscale. Combining with optical platforms like fibers, waveguides, grating, and resonators, these materials has spurred a variety of active and passive applications recently. Herein, the optical and electrical properties of graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, black phosphorus, MXene, and their derivative van der Waals heterostructures are comprehensively reviewed, followed by the design and fabrication of these 2D material‐based optical structures in implementation. Next, distinct devices, ranging from lasers to light emitters, frequency convertors, modulators, detectors, plasmonic generators, and sensors, are introduced. Finally, the state‐of‐art investigation progress of 2D material‐based optoelectronics offers a promising way to realize new conceptual and high‐performance applications for information science and nanotechnology. The outlook on the development trends and important research directions are also put forward.

The year 2019 marks the 10th anniversary of the first report of ultrafast fiber laser mode-locked by graphene. This result has had an important impact on ultrafast laser optics and continues to offer new horizons. Herein, we mainly review the linear and nonlinear photonic properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials, as well as their nonlinear applications in efficient passive mode-locking devices and ultrafast fiber lasers. Initial works and significant progress in this field, as well as new insights and challenges of 2D materials for ultrafast fiber lasers, are reviewed and analyzed.

Recently, 2D materials are in great demand for various applications such as optical devices, supercapacitors, sensors, and biomedicine. MXenes as a kind of novel 2D material have attracted considerable research interest due to their outstanding mechanical, thermal, electrical, and optical properties. Especially, the excellent nonlinear optical response enables them to be potential candidates for the applications in ultrafast photonics. Here, a review of MXenes synthesis, optical properties, and applications in ultrafast lasers is presented. First, aqueous acid etching and chemical vapor deposition methods for preparing MXenes are introduced, in which the storage stability and challenges of the existing synthesis techniques are also discussed. Then, the optical properties of MXenes are discussed specifically, including plasmonic properties, optical detection, photothermal effects, and ultrafast dynamics. Furthermore, the typical ultrafast pulsed lasers enabled by MXene-based saturable absorbers operated at different wavelength regions are summarized. Finally, a summary and outlook on the development of MXenes is presented in the perspectives section.

In recent years, a variety of 2‐dimensional (2D) materials including graphene, topological insulators, transition metal dichalcogenides, and black phosphorus have been utilized in photonics and optoelectronics applications. Since the mid‐infrared (MIR) region has a significant role in various fields, rapid progress has been made on photonics and optoelectronics applications using 2D materials. Herein, the progress in the photonics devices that exploit the unique properties of 2D materials for a range of MIR applications is summarized, focusing on ultrafast light generation, MIR light modulation, and photodetection. By taking advantage of ultrafast light response, broadband absorption, and high carrier mobility of 2D materials, femtosecond lasers, broadband optical modulators, and high‐responsivity photodetectors are achieved. Some perspectives on 2D material‐based MIR photonics are highlighted. Due to their MIR bandgaps, small size, high carrier mobility, and easy integration, 2D materials are appealing for MIR photonics applications. Moreover, the availability of an increasingly broad library of 2D materials with variable electronic and optical properties, and the ability to be thinned and restacked into functional and complex assembled structures, enable the development of a highly integrated MIR photonic chip, which will make information technology greener, faster, and lower in energy consumption.

Microresonator based Kerr frequency comb generation has many attractive features, including ultrabroad spectra, chip-level integration, and low power consumption. Achieving precise tuning control over the comb frequencies will be important for a number of practical applications, but has been little explored for microresonator combs. In this paper, we characterize the thermal tuning of a coherent Kerr frequency comb generated from an on-chip silicon nitride microring. When the microring temperature is changed by ~70 °C with an integrated microheater, the line spacing and center frequency of the comb are tuned respectively by -253 MHz (-3.57 MHz/°C) and by -175 GHz (-2.63 GHz/°C); the latter constitutes 75% of the comb line spacing. From these results we obtain a shift of 25 GHz (362.07 MHz/°C) in the comb carrier-envelope offset frequency. Numerical simulations are performed by taking into account the thermo-optic effects in the waveguide core and cladding. The temperature variation of the comb line spacing predicted from simulations is close to that observed in experiments. The time-dependent thermal response of the microheater based tuning scheme is characterized; time constants of 30.9 μs and 0.71 ms are observed.