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Terahertz saturable absorbers from liquid phase exfoliation of graphite

2017; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 8; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/ncomms15763

2041-1723

Vezio Bianchi, Tian Carey, Leonardo Viti, Lianhe Li, E. H. Linfield, A. G. Davies, Alessandro Tredicucci, Duhee Yoon, Panagiotis Karagiannidis, Lucia Lombardi, Flavia Tomarchio, Andrea C. Ferrari, Felice Torrisi, Miriam S. Vitiello,

Advanced Chemical Physics Studies

Abstract 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.