22 research outputs found
Surfactant-aided exfoliation of molybdenum disulfide for ultrafast pulse generation through edge-state saturable absorption
We use liquid phase exfoliation to produce dispersions of molybdenum
disulphide (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 fibre lasers,
tunable from 1535-1565 and 1030-1070 nm, respectively. We attribute this
sub-bandgap optical absorption and its nonlinear saturation behaviour to
edge-mediated states introduced within the material band-gap of the exfoliated
MoS2 nanoflakes.EJRK and TH acknowledge support from the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng).This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pssb.20155230