MXene Photonic Devices for Near-Infrared to Mid-Infrared Ultrashort Pulse Generation
Zhenhong Wang, Hongbo Li, Mulin Luo, Tenghui Chen, Xuefeng Xia, Hualong Chen, Chunyang Ma, Jia Guo, Zhenwu He, Yufeng Song, Jun Liu, Xiantao Jiang, Han Zhang
Abstract
As a two-dimensional material, MXene has accordion-like structures and possesses highly tunable and tailorable electro-optical capabilities, which suggests that it can be extensively used for electro-photonics devices. Here, we investigate the performances of 2D Ti3C2Tx MXene in the nonlinear optical application of ultrafast photonics spanning the near-infrared (NIR) and mid-infrared (MIR) ranges. Interestingly, by utilizing the combined effects of nonlinear saturable absorption and high nonlinearity properties of the Ti3C2Tx photonic device based on a microfiber, rogue waves with a high pulse energy in a fiber laser at 1.55 μm are first obtained. Additionally, by virtue of the Ti3C2Tx saturable absorber, high-power ultrashort pulses are generated in a 2 μm fiber laser. Besides, a Ti3C2Tx Q-switched fiber laser at 2.8 μm is also realized, which can deliver stable pulse trains with a 640 ns pulse width and a 122.9 kHz repetition rate, corresponding to a 1.8 μJ pulse energy and a 2.89 W peak power. The results suggest that as a promising nonlinear optical material, MXene has pioneered a way for the development of ultrafast nonlinear photonic devices in the NIR and MIR ranges.