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Pyrite-type ferrous disulfide (FeS2) is very suitable for ultrafast optical applications in the near-infrared field due to its appropriate band gap and high light absorption coefficient. However, n...

In recent years, the photoelectric properties and nonlinear optical properties of layered metal chalcogenides (LMCs) have attracted extensive attentions. Because of lower phonon thermal conductivity, larger energy storage rate, and larger electron mobility, LMCs are widely studied in the fields of thermoelectric energy conversion, battery electrode materials, and semiconductor devices. As 2D LMCs, SnSe2 nanosheets (Ns) are connected to each other by van der Waals force, which makes it possible to use electrochemical methods to help peel off the thin layer structure. Two-dimensional SnSe2 has obvious adjustable band gap characteristics. Its thickness can be controlled to keep it on the desired band gap. In this article, we prepared a thin layer of SnSe2 by electrochemical methods and detected its nonlinear optical characteristics. It shows that our prepared materials have good optical absorption characteristics; it has a modulation depth of 15% and a saturation intensity of 61 MW/cm2. To investigate the nonlinear effects of SnSe2 in short and long cavities, the Q-mode-locking phenomenon was first achieved in a fiber laser with cavity length of 6 m. After increasing the cavity length to 56 m, the pump power is adjusted to achieve an adjustable repetition frequency from MHz to GHz in turn in an Er-doped fiber laser through utilizing an SnSe2 incorporating a tapered fiber as a saturable absorber (SA). The nonlinear optical properties of thin layer SnSe2 are fully proven, which opens a new way for advanced photonics, optical communication, laser measurement, and other fields.

Based on the phase-change material Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST), achromatic metasurface optical device in the longer-infrared wavelength is designed. With the combination of the linear phase gradient GST nanopillar and the adjustment of the crystalline fraction m value of GST, the polarization insensitive achromic metalenses and beam deflector metasurface within the longer-infrared wavelength 9.5 μm to 13 μm are realized. The design results show that the achromatic metalenses can be focused on the same focal plane within the working waveband. The simulation calculation results show that the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the focusing spot reaches the diffraction limit at each wavelength. In addition, the same method is also used to design a broadband achromatic beam deflector metasurface with the same deflection angle of 19°. The method proposed in this article not only provides new ideas for the design of achromatic metasurfaces, but also provides new possibilities for the integration of optical imaging, optical coding and other related optical systems.

Three vortex-focused beams are produced with linearly polarized light along the x or y axis at a wavelength of 1550 nm. First, a polarization-independent vortex metalens with a topological charge of three and focal length of 3000 nm is designed by selecting cylindrical-shaped elements. This design has a focusing efficiency of 83%. Second, vortex beams with different focal lengths and topological charges are achieved by combining various shapes of structures. Both designs have a focusing efficiency of greater than 92%. The designed metasurface is of great significance to optical communication and radar detection.

Three-dimensional (3D) materials are widely used in optoelectronics, thermodynamics and ultrafast fiber lasers because of their excellent nonlinear optical properties. Silver sulfide (Ag

Two-dimensional layered metal chalcogenides (LMCs) are widely used in battery anode materials, energy conversion, and semiconductor devices, because of their high energy storage characteristics, high thermoelectric characteristics, and large electron mobility. SnSe

A tunable metalens plays an indispensable role in the development of integrated optics, multi-imaging systems, etc. We propose a multifunctional tunable metalens that combines a double-layer barium titanate (BTO) structure and geometric phase in the visible light band. The refractive indices of the upper and lower layer BTO nanorods can be tuned continuously and independently by applying external voltage (0–60 V), and the lower layer can be converted between a full-wave plate and normal scattering unit, while the scatterers of the upper layer can be switched between a half-wave plate and full-wave plate. The voltages of the upper and lower layers can be adjusted to achieve different functions such as optical switches, conversion between monofocal and bifocal metalenses, adjustment of bifocal intensity, and broadband focusing (585–690 nm). Simulation results show that the multifunctional tunable metalens has a good focusing effect. A metalens with high focusing efficiency, dynamic reconfigurability, and a switching function has tremendous application potential in the fields of multifunctional devices, biomedicine, optical communication, imaging, and so on.

Three-dimensional (3D) materials are widely used in optoelectronics, thermodynamics and ultrafast fiber lasers because of their excellent nonlinear optical properties. Silver sulfide (Ag2S) is a kind of 3D material with a unique tetragonal structure and large absorption coefficient. In this paper, a double-balance detection system is used to measure the saturation absorption intensity of Ag2S as 226.6 MW/cm2 and the modulation depth as 13.9%. In the ring fiber laser, Ag2S is used as a saturable absorber (SA) to obtain a stable dual-wavelength mode locking. The center wavelengths of the mode locking are 1536.9 and 1544.5 nm, and the corresponding 3-dB bandwidths are 1.3 and 1.5. nm. By adjusting the polarization controller (PC), a tuning process from two wavelengths to multiple wavelengths is realized, and the tunable width is 13.1 nm. This phenomenon is due to the combined effect of birefringence and nonlinear effects in the cavity. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a multiplexed fiber laser with Ag2S as a SA. The emergence of this result provides a valuable reference information for the multifunctional compact fiber laser, and the formed system can be applied in the fields of fiber sensing, telecommunications and optical communication.

Two-dimensional layered metal chalcogenides (LMCs) are widely used in battery anode materials, energy conversion, and semiconductor devices, because of their high energy storage characteristics, high thermoelectric characteristics, and large electron mobility. SnSe2 as a kind of LMC has strong nonlinear optical characteristics. However, its research on dissipative system dynamics as a saturable absorber has not been studied. In this work, we obtained SnSe2 nanosheets using lithium ion intercalation and we reported a passively mode-locked fiber laser with SnSe2 as a saturable absorber to achieve the dissipative soliton in a dissipative system. Due to the high third-order nonlinearity of SnSe2, the evolution of square wave pulses from 2 to 16 ns was obtained in a fiber ring cavity. Through adjusting the polarization state, the evolution phenomenon of soliton rain, the soliton rain phenomenon with a spectrum of dual-wavelengths, and a bound state harmonic phenomenon with a frequency of 313 MHz were obtained. Therefore, the strong nonlinear fiber laser based on SnSe2 provides a good platform for study the pulsation, explosion, rainfall and other phenomena.

Optical-intensity modulators have increasingly important applications in optoelectronic field. However, it still remains a challenge to find an optical intensity modulation material with stable chemical properties, high efficiency and low cost in the infrared region. Here, we present a liquid phase exfoliation-based programme for the preparation of InSb nanosheets. Experimentally, the mechanically exfoliated InSb nanosheets possess preferable morphology and stable chemical properties, which means this programme is reliable and efficient. However, InSb nanosheets have completely different Raman peaks compared with bulk. Afterwards, the InSb nanosheets were used to realize switchable dual-wavelength mode locking around 1565 nm. This work has high practical value and will lay a solid foundation for the large-scale study of optical-intensity modulator based on Sb compounds.

Due to the excellent electrochemical characteristics, Sb4O5Cl2 has been potentially used in flame retardant, catalyst, and anode materials, etc. At the same time, it has broad application prospects in optics and optoelectronics because of its strong inoxidizability, high damage threshold and relatively high-photoelectric conversion efficiency. However, the application of Sb4O5Cl2 in ultra-fast photonics has not been reported so far. In this work, the structure characteristic and nonlinear optics property of Sb4O5Cl2 have been systematically studied. The result indicates saturation intensity and modulation depth are 402.5 MW/cm2 and 1.3%, which prove Sb4O5Cl2 could be utilized as a saturable absorber (SA) in ultrafast photonics. Especially, harmonic mode-locking with 850-fs pulse duration, 2.86-nm 3-dB bandwidth, 202.3-MHz maximum repetition rate in optical communication region is generated based on a tapered fiber incorporated with Sb4O5Cl2 for the first time to our knowledge. This work opens novel avenues toward optoelectronics device based on Sb4O5Cl2 in the fields of optical modulation, optical detection and optical communication, etc.

A long cavity passively mode locked fiber laser in the anomalous dispersion regime is reported. Nonlinear polarization rotation technique is employed to achieve the mode locking in our experiments. The output pulse from the fiber laser has the Gaussian profile spectrum and right angle trapezoid shape. Stable mode locking is achieved without using any dispersion-compensation components. The single pulse with an energy of 652 nJ and a repetition rate of 836 kHz at the pump power of approximately 500 mW is obtained and the duration of the output pulse increases linearly with the pump power. Different from the conventional low-energy soliton pulse, experimental results demonstrate that the passively mode locked fiber laser operating in the anomalous regime can also realize high energy pulse.