Rhenium disulfide (ReS2), a member of group VII transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), has attracted increasing attention because of its unique distorted 1T structure and electronic and optical properties, which are much different from those of group VI TMDs (MoS2, WS2, MoSeg, WSe2, etc.). It has been proved that bulk ReS2 behaves as a stack of electronically and vibrationally decoupled monulayers, which offers remarkable possibilities to prepare a monolayer ReS2 facilely and offers a novel platform to study photonic properties of TMDs. However, due to the large and layer-independent bandgap, the nonlinear optical properties of ReS2 from the visible to midinfrared spectral range have not yet been investigated. Here, the band structure of ReS2 with the introduction of defects is simulated by the ab initio method, and the results indicate that the bandgap can be reduced from 1.38 to 0.54 eV with the introduction of defects in a suitable range. In the experiment, using a bulk ReS2 with suitable defects as the raw material, a few-layered broadband ReS2 saturable absorber (SA) is prepared by the liquid phase exfoliation method. Using the as-prepared ReS2 SA, passively Q-switched solid-state lasers at wavelengths of 0.64, 1.064, and 1.991 μm are investigated systematically. Moreover, with cavity design, a femtosecond passively modelocked laser at 1.06μm is successfully realized based on the as-prepared ReS2 SA for the first time. The results present a promising alternative for a rare broadband optical modulator and indicate the potential of ReS2 in generating Q-switched and mode-locked pulsed lasers. It is further anticipated that this work may be helpful for the design of 2D optoelectronic devices with variable bandgaps.
XIANCUI SUBAITAO ZHANGYIRAN WANGGUANBAI HEGUORU LINA LINKEJIAN YANGJINGLIANG HESHANDE LIU
As a wide-bandgap semiconductor(WBG), β-Ga_2O_3 is expected to be applied to power electronics and solar blind UV photodetectors. In this review, defects in β-Ga_2O_3 single crystals were summarized, including dislocations, voids, twin, and small defects. Their effects on device performance were discussed. Dislocations and their surrounding regions can act as paths for the leakage current of SBD in single crystals. However, not all voids lead to leakage current. There's no strong evidence yet to show small defects affect the electrical properties. Doping impurity was definitely irrelated to the leakage current. Finally, the formation mechanism of the defects was analyzed. Most small defects were induced by mechanical damages. The screw dislocation originated from a subgrain boundary. The edge dislocation lying on a plane slightly tilted towards the(102) plane, the(101) being the possible slip plane. The voids defects like hollow nanopipes, PNPs, NSGs and line-shaped grooves may be caused by the condensation of excess oxygen vacancies, penetration of tiny bubbles or local meltback. The nucleation of twin lamellae occurred at the initial stage of "shoulder part" during the crystal growth. These results are helpful in controlling the occurrence of crystal defects and improving the device performance.
Bo FuZhitai JiaWenxiang MuYanru YinJian ZhangXutang Tao
UiO-67 is a Zr-based metal–organic framework(MOF) containing an organic linker namely, the dianion of biphenyl-4,40-dicarboxylic acid(bpdc). Ce4+metal ions(0.02 Ce to Zr atom ratio) were incorporated into UiO-67 via partially replacing bpdc with the dianion of 2,20-bipyridine-5,50-dicarboxylic acid(bpydc);thus, the latter forms a bpydc-Ce complex. The resulting product(i.e., UiO-67-Ce) demonstrated a photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate that was over 10 times higher than that of UiO-67. Through this modification, a new energy transfer channel is opened up. The energy transfer between the bpdc and bpydc-Ce ligands(i.e., from excited bpdc to bpydc-Ce) weakened the recombination of the charge carriers, which was confirmed by photoluminescence, emission lifetime, and transient absorption measurements. This study presents a new way to construct highly efficient MOF photocatalysts.
Yang AnYuanyuan LiuHongtao BianZeyan WangPeng WangZhaoke ZhengYing DaiMyung-Hwan WhangboBaibiao Huang
A compact saturable absorber mirror(SAM) based on few-layer molybdenum disulfide(MoS2) nanoplatelets was fabricated and successfully used as an efficient saturable absorber(SA) for the passively Q-switched solid-state laser at 1 μm wavelength. Pulses as short as 182 ns were obtained from a ytterbium-doped(Yb:LGGG) bulk laser Q-switched by the MoS2 SAM, which we believe to be the shortest one ever achieved from the MoS2 SAs-based Q-switched bulk lasers. A maximum average output power of 0.6 W was obtained with a slope efficiency of 24%,corresponding to single pulse energy up to 1.8 μJ. In addition, the simultaneous dual-wavelength Q-switching at 1025.2 and 1028.1 nm has been successfully achieved. The results indicate the promising potential of few-layer MoS2 nanoplatelets as nonlinear optical switches for achieving efficient pulsed bulk lasers.