Journal
ACS NANO
Volume 10, Issue 10, Pages 9463-9469Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.6b04536
Keywords
localized surface plasmon resonance; semiconductor nanocrystals; nonlinear optics; optical modulation; ultrafast photonics; superbroadband
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Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [51132004, 61475047, 11504323, 61275108]
- Science and Technology department of Zhejiang Province [2015C31045]
- Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province [Q14E020009]
- Guangdong Natural Science Foundation [S2011030001349]
- State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy (East China Normal University)
- Open Fund of the State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics (Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics.)
- Guangdong Natural Science Funds [2014A030306019]
- National Basic Research Program of China [2013CBA01505]
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Field effect relies on the nonlinear current voltage relation in semiconductors; analogously, materials that respond nonlinearly to an optical field can be utilized for optical modulation. For instance, nonlinear optical (NLO) materials bearing a saturable absorption (SA) feature an on off switching behavior at the critical pumping power, thus enabling ultrafast laser pulse generation with high peak power. SA has been observed in diverse materials preferably in its nanoscale form, including both gaped semiconductor nanostructures and gapless materials like graphene; while the presence of optical bandgap and small carrier density have limited the active spectral range and intensity. We show here that solution-processed plasmonic semiconductor nanocrystals exhibit super broadband (over 400 THz) SA, meanwhile with large modulation depth (similar to 1 dB) and ultrafast recovery (similar to 315 fs). Optical modulators fabricated using these plasmonic nanocrystals enable mode-locking and Q-switching operation across the near-infrared and mid-infrared spectral region, as exemplified here by the pulsed lasers realized at 1.0, 1.5, and 2.8 gm bands with minimal pulse duration down to a few hundreds of femtoseconds. The facile accessibility and superbroadband optical nonlinearity offered by these nonconventional plasmonic nanocrystals may stimulate a growing interest in the exploiting of relevant NLO and photonic applications.
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