Reverse saturable absorption and nonlinear refraction of ultrathin ZrS3 nanobelts.

Abstract

The nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of a ZrS3 nanobelt were measured with a 6.5 ns pulse laser at 532 nm. Its optical response to the incident light exhibits good optical absorptive and refractive effects, with the nonlinear absorption coefficient β = 4.42 × 10(-10) m W(-1) and the nonlinear refraction coefficient γ = 5.86 × 10(-17) m(2) W(-1) for the ZrS3 nanobelt in ethanol dispersions at an input energy of 34.25 μJ. In addition, the β values and γ values have dependence on input energy. Results show that the ZrS3 nanobelts have an excellent reverse saturable absorption (RSA) performance in nanosecond pulses, demonstrating that ZrS3 nanobelts are an extraordinarily promising novel optical power limiting material. Meanwhile, compared to the pure ZrS3, graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO), composites (ZrS3/GRO) exhibit an enhanced nonlinear absorption response at the same input energy.