Terahertz saturable absorbers from liquid phase exfoliation of graphite

Saturable absorbers (SA) operating at terahertz (THz) frequencies can open new frontiers in the development of passively mode-locked THz micro-sources. Here we report the fabrication of THz SAs by transfer coating and inkjet printing single and few-layer graphene films prepared by liquid phase exfol...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2017-06, Vol.8 (1), p.15763-15763, Article 15763
Main Authors: Bianchi, Vezio, Carey, Tian, Viti, Leonardo, Li, Lianhe, Linfield, Edmund H., Davies, A. Giles, Tredicucci, Alessandro, Yoon, Duhee, Karagiannidis, Panagiotis G., Lombardi, Lucia, Tomarchio, Flavia, Ferrari, Andrea C., Torrisi, Felice, Vitiello, Miriam S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/301/357
639/624/1111
639/925/918
Bleaching
Exfoliation
Fabrication
Fourier transforms
Gases
Graphene
Graphite
Humanities and Social Sciences
Infrared spectroscopy
Inkjet printing
Integration
multidisciplinary
Printing
Quantum cascade lasers
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Spectroscopy
Spectrum analysis
Transparency
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Summary:Saturable absorbers (SA) operating at terahertz (THz) frequencies can open new frontiers in the development of passively mode-locked THz micro-sources. Here we report the fabrication of THz SAs by transfer coating and inkjet printing single and few-layer graphene films prepared by liquid phase exfoliation of graphite. Open-aperture z -scan measurements with a 3.5 THz quantum cascade laser show a transparency modulation ∼80%, almost one order of magnitude larger than that reported to date at THz frequencies. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy provides evidence of intraband-controlled absorption bleaching. These results pave the way to the integration of graphene-based SA with electrically pumped THz semiconductor micro-sources, with prospects for applications where excitation of specific transitions on short time scales is essential, such as time-of-flight tomography, coherent manipulation of quantum systems, time-resolved spectroscopy of gases, complex molecules and cold samples and ultra-high speed communications, providing unprecedented compactness and resolution. Graphene shows promise for saturable absorption, a key property for ultrafast lasing, yet graphene saturable absorbers operating in the terahertz region suffer from low absorption modulation. Here, the authors report terahertz saturable absorbers based on inkjet printed graphene with 80% transparency modulation.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/ncomms15763