Surfactant-aided exfoliation of molybdenum disulfide for ultrafast pulse generation through edge-state saturable absorption

Richard C. T. Howe*, Robert I. Woodward, Guohua Hu, Zongyin Yang, Edmund J. R. Kelleher, Tawfique Hasan

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

25 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We use liquid phase exfoliation to produce dispersions of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanoflakes in aqueous surfactant solutions. The chemical structures of the bile salt surfactants play a crucial role in the exfoliation and stabilization of MoS2. The resultant MoS2 dispersions are heavily enriched in single and few (<6) layer flakes with large edge to surface area ratio. We use the dispersions to fabricate free-standing polymer composite wide-band saturable absorbers to develop mode-locked and Q-switched fiber lasers, tunable from 1535 to 1565 and 1030 to 1070 nm, respectively. We attribute this sub-bandgap optical absorption and its nonlinear saturation behavior to edge-mediated states introduced within the material band-gap of the exfoliated MoS2 nanoflakes.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)911-917
Number of pages7
JournalPhysica Status Solidi B: Basic Solid State Physics
Volume253
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2016
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • liquid phase exfoliation
  • MoS₂
  • saturable absorption
  • ultrafast laser

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