MXenes: Synthesis, Optical Properties, and Applications in Ultrafast Photonics

Abstract

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.

Recent Progress of Two-Dimensional Materials for Ultrafast Photonics

“…Since Naguib et al first exfoliated Ti C nanosheets from Ti AlC , MXenes joined the 2D materials family [ 51 , 116 ]. In 2017, Jhon et al utilized Ti CNT monolayers to obtain both stable Q-switched and mode-locked pulses at 1558 and 1557 nm [ 315 ].…”

“…Thus far, the most widely studied 2D materials in the field of pulsed laser applications are graphene [ 40 , 41 , 44 ], topological insulators (TIs) [ 45 , 46 ], transition metal disulfides (TMDs) [ 47 , 48 ], and black phosphorus (BP) [ 49 , 50 ]. In addition, a growing number of novel 2D materials have been added to the 2D family, such as MXenes [ 51 ], bismuthine [ 52 ], and antimonene [ 53 ]. The above 2D materials have been widely explored for ultrafast laser applications from the visible to mid-infrared (mid-IR) wavelengths [ 54 , 55 , 56 ].…”

Recent Progress on Metal‐Based Nanomaterials: Fabrications, Optical Properties, and Applications in Ultrafast Photonics

“…[158] The family of MXenes consists of dozens of materials with distinct properties, but only part of them have been explored. [55] In recent years, MNPs have attracted wide attention in several fields due to their excellent electrical, magnetic, and chemical properties. [159][160][161] Furthermore, other properties have also been gradually investigated for applications in ultrafast photonics.…”

“…[18,19] Thereafter, nanomaterials as SAs come into the sight of researchers since the first demonstration of 1D carbon nanotubes in ultrafast lasers. [20][21][22][23][24][25] Subsequently, 2D materials including graphene, [26][27][28][29][30][31][32] topological insulators (TIs), [33][34][35][36][37][38] transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), [39][40][41][42][43][44][45] black phosphorus (BP), [23,[46][47][48][49][50][51] and MXenes [52][53][54][55][56][57] have also been widely used. [58][59][60][61][62][63][64] It is noted that 2D materials have several similar properties of broadband nonlinear response, high conductivity, and tunab...…”

PbS Quantum Dots Saturable Absorber for Dual-Wavelength Solitons Generation

“…Low-dimensional materials have attracted extensive interest in applied physics due to their excellent optical, electronic, and chemical characteristics [1][2][3]. Two-dimensional (2D) graphene [4,5], black phosphorus [6], MXenes [7], antimonene [8], transition metal dichalcogenides [9], topological insulators [10], and one-dimensional (1D) carbon nanotubes [11,12] have been employed as saturable absorbers (SAs) to obtain ultrafast pulses in passively mode-locked fiber lasers. Among these SAs, the main problem is that it is difficult to achieve short carrier lifetime, high thermal damage, large modulation depth, and wide bandwidth in an individual material at the same time.…”