Saturable Absorption in 2D Ti₃C₂ MXene Thin Films for Passive Photonic Diodes

Author

Yongchang Dong
Sergii Chertopalov
Kathleen Maleski
Babak Anasori
Longyu Hu
Sriparna Bhattacharya
Apparao M. Rao
Yury Gogotsi
Vadym Mochalin, Missouri University of Science and TechnologyFollow
Ramakrishna Podila

Abstract

MXenes comprise a new class of 2D transition metal carbides, nitrides, and carbonitrides that exhibit unique light-matter interactions. Recently, 2D Ti₃CNT_x (Tx represents functional groups such as -OH and -F) was found to exhibit nonlinear saturable absorption (SA) or increased transmittance at higher light fluences, which is useful for mode locking in fiber-based femtosecond lasers. However, the fundamental origin and thickness dependence of SA behavior in MXenes remain to be understood. 2D Ti₃CNT_x thin films of different thicknesses are fabricated using an interfacial film formation technique to systematically study their nonlinear optical properties. Using the open aperture Z-scan method, it is found that the SA behavior in Ti₃CNT_x MXene arises from plasmon-induced increase in the ground state absorption at photon energies above the threshold for free carrier oscillations. The saturation fluence and modulation depth of Ti₃CNT_x MXene is observed to be dependent on the film thickness. Unlike other 2D materials, Ti₃CNT_x is found to show higher threshold for light-induced damage with up to 50% increase in nonlinear transmittance. Lastly, building on the SA behavior of Ti₃CNT_x MXenes, a Ti₃CNT_x MXene-based photonic diode that breaks time-reversal symmetry to achieve nonreciprocal transmission of nanosecond laser pulses is demonstrated.

Recommended Citation

Y. Dong and S. Chertopalov and K. Maleski and B. Anasori and L. Hu and S. Bhattacharya and A. M. Rao and Y. Gogotsi and V. Mochalin and R. Podila, "Saturable Absorption in 2D Ti₃C₂ MXene Thin Films for Passive Photonic Diodes," Advanced Materials, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Jan 2018.

The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201705714

Department(s)

Chemistry

Second Department

Materials Science and Engineering

Research Center/Lab(s)

Center for High Performance Computing Research

Sponsor(s)

National Science Foundation (U.S.)
Missouri University of Science and Technology

Comments

Funded by U.S. National Science Foundation. Grant Number: DMR-1310245

Keywords and Phrases

2D Materials; Mxenes; Nonlinear Optics; Optical Diodes; Thin Films; Titanium Carbide

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0935-9648

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Inc., All rights reserved.

Publication Date

15 Jan 2018