Mechanically exfoliated black phosphorus as a new saturable absorber for both Q-switching and Mode-locking laser operation

Black phosphorus (BP), an emerging narrow direct band-gap two-dimensional (2D) layered material that can fill the gap between the semi-metallic graphene and the wide-bandgap transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), had been experimentally found to exhibit the saturation of optical absorption if under strong light illumination. By taking advantage of this saturable absorption property, we could fabricate a new type of optical saturable absorber (SA) based on mechanically exfoliated BPs, and further demonstrate the applications for ultra-fast laser photonics. Based on the balanced synchronous twin-detector measurement method, we have characterized the saturable absorption property of the fabricated BP-SAs at the…

• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 2012CB315701, 61222505, 12JJ7005, 61435010
• NS
  Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province

  Awards: 12JJ7005, 13JJ1012
• NK
  National Key Research and Development Program of China

  Award: 2012CB315701