All-Optical Switching of Two Continuous Waves in Few Layer Bismuthene Based on Spatial Cross-Phase Modulation

Abstract

Bismuthene, the last and heaviest group-VA elemental two-dimensional material, has received tremendous interests owing to its advantages in electronic-transport, semimetallic bonding, and intrinsic spin-orbit coupling. However, light–bismuthene interaction is relatively less investigated. Herein, sonochemical exfoliation approach had been employed to deliver a successful synthesis of few-layer bismuthene with an average thickness of ∼3 nm and a lateral size of ∼0.2 μm. The corresponding band structure from mono- to sextuple-layer had been therotically calculated and it was found that bismuthene possesses a thickness dependent energy gap from almost zero to 0.55 eV, suggesting that bismuthene may also find unique applications from terahertz, mid-infrared toward infrared regime. The nonlinear optical absorption and refraction parameters had been well characterized by laser Z-scan and spatial phase modulation measurement techniques, respectively. By taking advantage of its strong nonlinear refraction effect,...