基于新型二维材料MXene的喷墨打印宽带可饱和吸收体制备及其超快激光应用

Ultrafast lasers with ultra-high peak power, ultra-short pulse duration, and tunable repetition rate have found a plethora of applications in both civilian, industry, and military. A stable broadband saturable absorber is the crucial element of ultrafast lasers and has become the focal point of optical research communities. Semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) is currently dominated in this area, yet limited by its complicated fabrication processes, narrow modulation wavelength band, and simple mirror geometrics. Recently, a novel two-dimensional saturable absorber material MXene has greatly inspired the optics communities, due to its feasible preparation, broad modulation wavelength band (Eg<0.6 eV), similar nonlinear optical performance to graphene, and lower linear optical loss (1%/nm) compare to graphene. In this project, MXene nanosheets will be utilized as the absorber material. Additive manufacturing technique inkjet printing will be applied to fabricate sophisticated MXene absorbers based on the requirements of different laser resonators, to realize integrated and productized resonators. The project is aiming to achieve ultrafast mode-locked laser prototypes of both fiber and solid-state resonators based on inkjet-printed broadband MXene saturable absorbers at different wavelengths.

超短脉冲激光器以其超高的峰值功率，超短脉冲时间和可调谐的重复频率在国计民生中具有广泛的应用。稳定可靠的宽带可饱和吸收体是超短脉冲激光器中不可或缺的重要器件，因而长期成为人们研究的热点。目前，广泛采用的半导体可饱和吸收体镜受限制于其复杂的制备工艺，有限的调制波段和简单的平面镜结构。近期，二维可饱和吸收体材料MXene因其便捷的制备工艺，超宽的调制波段（Eg<0.6eV），与石墨烯类似的非线性光学性能，以及较石墨烯更低的线性损耗（1%/nm）而为研究人员提供了一个全新的思路。本项目拟采用MXene纳米片作为可饱和吸收体材料，根据不同激光器谐振腔的要求，采用喷墨打印增材技术制备各种复杂精细结构的可饱和吸收体，并使之与谐振腔实现集成化和产品化。本项目的最终目的是利用喷墨打印的MXene宽带可饱和吸收体在不同波段，光纤和固体激光器中均实现锁模超短脉冲激光输出，并获得产品化的光纤和固体激光器原型。

近期，由于具有各种出色的物理化学性，如高导电率、高弹性模量、高电容率、可调谐的带隙、高光学透过率、可离子嵌入、可室温条件制备、以及与水、有机溶剂和生物体良好的相容性等，一种新型二位材料MXene引起了人们的广泛关注。本项目采用MXene纳米片作为可饱和吸收体材料，利用喷墨打印技术，制备了各种复杂精细结构的可饱和吸收体，并使之与谐振腔实现集成化。最终，利用该打印的MXene可饱和吸收体，该项目在不同的激光谐振腔中均实现了脉冲激光输出，包括调Q和锁模激光输出。最短激光脉冲为115飞秒，与同行中报道的最好结果相当。