Unveiling the dimension-dependence of femtosecond nonlinear optical properties of tellurium nanostructures

Qi Xiao; Bo Ma; Xian Fei; Duan-Wu Liu; Xin-Ping Zhai; Xiang-Yang Li; Ming-Jun Xiao; Yong Peng; Qiang Wang; Hao-Li Zhang

doi:10.1039/D1NH00253H

Unveiling the dimension-dependence of femtosecond nonlinear optical properties of tellurium nanostructures†

Qi Xiao,^a Bo Ma,^a Xian Fei,^a Duan-Wu Liu,^a Xin-Ping Zhai,^a Xiang-Yang Li,^a Ming-Jun Xiao,

^a Yong Peng,

^b Qiang Wang

*^a and Hao-Li Zhang

*^ac

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Special Function Materials and Structure Design, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, P. R. China
E-mail: haoli.zhang@lzu.edu.cn, qiangwang@lzu.edu.cn

^b Key Laboratory of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials of MOE, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, P. R. China

^c Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Optoelectronic Sciences, Department of Chemistry, Tianjin University, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), Tianjin 300072, P. R. China

Abstract

Low dimensional tellurium is currently of great interest for potential electronic applications due to the experimentally observed Weyl fermions and the excellent carrier mobility, on/off ratios and current-carrying capacity in devices. However, the optical properties of Te nanostructures are not well explored, especially in the field of nonlinear optics. Here, we prepared a series of Te nanostructures by electrochemical exfoliation and liquid phase exfoliation methods, including one-dimensional (1D) Te nanowires (NWs), quasi-1D Te nanorods (NRs), zero-dimensional (0D) Te nanodots (NDs) and two-dimensional (2D) Te nanosheets (NSs). Femtosecond Z-scan measurements reveal unique dimension-dependent nonlinear optical (NLO) properties. 1D Te NWs and quasi-1D Te NRs exhibited higher saturable absorption behavior than 0D Te nanostructures, while the 2D Te NSs are a high performance optical limiting material. Ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy revealed the dimension-dependent exciton dynamics. The reverse saturable absorption of 2D Te NSs is derived from faster exciton relaxation and stronger excited state absorption. This work paves the way for the design of saturable absorbers with high performance and broadens the application of 2D Te in the field of laser protection and other novel ultrafast photonics.

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Unveiling the dimension-dependence of femtosecond nonlinear optical properties of tellurium nanostructures†

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