Recent progress in ultrafast lasers based on 2D materials as a saturable absorber

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) materials are crystals with one to a few layers of atoms and are being used in many fields such as optical modulator, photodetector, optical switch, and ultrafast lasers. Their exceptional optoelectronic and nonlinear optical properties make them as a suitable saturable absorber for laser cavities. This review focuses on the recent progress in ultrafast laser use 2D materials as a saturable absorber. 2D materials traditionally include graphene, topological insulators, transition metal dichalcogenides, as well as new materials such as black phosphorus, bismuthene, antimonene, and MXene. Material characteristics, fabrication techniques, and nonlinear properties are also introduced. Finally, future perspectives of ultrafast lasers based on 2D materials are also addressed.

Recent Advances in Semiconducting Monoelemental Selenium Nanostructures for Device Applications

“…2D materials have become a hot topic in the academic field due to their atomic layer thickness, broadband absorption and ultrafast optical response, which has been widely applied in the ultrafast laser generation, [103][104][105][106][107][108][109] optical switching and modulators, [110][111][112][113][114][115][116] optoelectronics devices, [106,[117][118][119] and biosensor and biotherapy. [120][121][122][123][124][125][126][127][128][129] In contrast to the significant progress in synthesizing 0D and 1D Se nanostructures, much less is known on 2D Se nanostructures, their processing approaches, and related properties so far.…”

Solution-processed two-dimensional materials for ultrafast fiber lasers (invited)

“…Fiber lasers are attractive platforms for ultrafast pulse generation due to their advantages of high pulse quality, flexibility, and compactness [1,2]. Meanwhile, the use of SAs is a preferred method for the generation of pulses in fiber lasers [30]. Particularly, 2DM-based SAs are more attractive in terms of their broadband operation and engineerable properties [23].…”

“…Two-dimensional materials (2DMs) have emerged as promising SAs with a number of favorable properties for laser development [29,30], such as broadband operation [31,32], controllable modulation depth [33], and ultrafast recovery time [34,35]. In addition, they can be solution processed by means of wet chemistry [36], making them easy to fabricate and integrate into all-fiber configurations.…”

“…In addition, they can be solution processed by means of wet chemistry [36], making them easy to fabricate and integrate into all-fiber configurations. Since the first demonstration of a graphene SA produced by liquid-phase exfoliation (LPE) [37], a growing number of related 2DMs are being investigated due to their diverse properties and manufacturing flexibility [30]. Among these, SAs based on topological insulators (TIs) have been demonstrated with high (~95%) modulation depth [38], while transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have better saturable absorption response (1.38 MW/cm 2 [39]) compared with graphene (e.g.…”

Passively Q-switched Yb-doped all-fiber laser based on Ag nanoplates as saturable absorber

“…On the other hand, the Ag nanoparticles possess the properties of the highest electrical and thermal conductivities among metal materials, as well as large and ultrafast third-order optical nonlinearities [34,35,41], indicating the high potential as SAs in pulsed fiber lasers. Moreover, compared to other materials used as SAs [51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60], Ag nanoparticles are easy to fabricate with no need of purification, and particle size can be controlled. However, despite a few works reported on Ag nanoparticles as SAs for Q-switched pulses generation at 1.5-and 2-μm bands [48][49][50], the investigation of Ag nanoparticles is still insufficient to date, with no experimental report of Q-switched operation at the 1-μm Yb-doped fiber laser (YDFL).…”