Near-infrared Wavelength Region Research Articles

Thickness-dependent optical properties of low-loss transdimensional plasmonic Sr0.82NbO3 thin films.

To develop alternative plasmonic materials for nanophotonic applications, the thickness-dependent optical properties of ultrathin plasmonic Sr0.82NbO3 (SNO) films deposited on MgO are investigated. As the thickness decreases from 10 to 2 nm, the film exhibits less metallic, epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) wavelength redshift and higher optical loss due to increased scattering. Nevertheless, the thinnest film still has a high carrier concentration of 1022 cm-3, and the real part of the dielectric functions of all films is less than zero in the near-infrared (NIR) wavelength region, indicating that the samples possess relatively high metallicity and plasmonic characteristics in the NIR. It is found that the carrier concentration dominates the electron effective mass and Drude plasma frequency. Although Au is a commonly used plasmonic material, at a wavelength of 1550 nm, the loss of SNO is 85.8% lower than that of Au, and its plasmonic performance metrics is significantly higher than TiN, Al:ZnO and Sn:In2O3, demonstrating the great potential of SNO in NIR plasmonic device applications.

(Invited) MoS2 Photodetectors for Near-Infrared Biosensing Applications

Device researchers have been actively developing novel diagnostic biosensors using metallic nanoparticle-based plasmonic immunoassays.[1] In these biosensing devices, photodetectors with high photoresponsivity and low internal noise levels are integrated to detect the marginal optical signals change induced by biomarker binding events (i.e., Antigen-antibody binding). Recently, atomically thin layers of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) have been integrated with plasmonic components to enable fast and sensitive colorimetric monitoring of disease-related biomarkers.[2] However, such biosensors are mostly operated in the ultraviolet/visible range, which needs a purification step to separate out a variety of unwanted biomaterials that absorb visible light and takes several hours of preparation steps. Thus, it would be amenable to develop biosensors for biomolecular detections or immunoassays in the whole blood (WB) analytes without any sample preparations.[3] To address the issues mentioned above, recent studies have demonstrated the engineered gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) that have localized surface plasmonic resonance (LSPR) shift around near-infrared (NIR) wavelength region. However, a high-sensitivity photodetector under NIR region is still required to detect marginal signal changes due to the target biomarker binding events. Meanwhile, the MoS2 material has been reported to exhibits superior photo-response characteristics.[4] MoS2 is a transition metal dichalcogenide material of which single- and multi-layer films exhibit an efficient electron-hole pair generation rate under photoexcitation and therefore high photo absorption as compared to silicon. Therefore, a systematical study on MoS2 photoconductors to optimize the optoelectronic properties under near-infrared (NIR) (λ = 650 nm) operation can enable zero-preparation WB immunoassays combined with specially engineered AuNPs.In this work, we study the photo-response properties (i.e., Photoresponsivity spectrum) of in-plane MoS2 photodetectors as the function of their geometric dimensions and fabrication conditions. Recent study shows that an annealing temperature after exfoliation can etch the upper layers of MoS2 flakes and clean stains on the device and therefore improve device performances (e.g., mobility). [5] This work enables the NIR operation capabilities of plasmonic colorimetric biosensing by introducing the optimized MoS2 photodetector fabrication practice. This approach reduces assay preparation times and mitigate background interference even with WB analytes and thereby enable the WB point-of-care immunoassays.

Temperature-switchable anti-reflective structure based on vanadium dioxide phase transition in the visible and near-infrared wavelength regions

Nowadays, the anti-reflective (AR) structures are essential in many applications like display screens, photovoltaic structures and light detection and ranging. Traditionally, the AR surfaces are almost multilayer (ML) structures to minimize the reflection value by producing the destructive interference of reflected light beams at the layers’ interfaces. In the new and advanced AR surfaces, nanostructures (NS) are proposed and used for minimizing the reflection. In this paper, we propose a temperature-switchable AR-ML-NS, based on vanadium dioxide (VO2) phase transition from semiconductor to metallic state around the critical temperature of 68 °C. Here, a pyramidal NS of VO2 is considered on top surface of a ML which minimizes the light reflection of the structure. While some AR structures may work in some restricted light wavelengths, here our proposed structure’s AR wavelength region can be tuned between the visible and near-infrared (NIR) region through the thermal phase transition of VO2. VO2 phase control leads to a temperature-switchable AR structure, which is of great importance for investigating different switchable AR structures.

Label- and Reagent-Free Optical Sensor for Absorption-Based Detection of Urea Concentration in Water Solutions.

Contactless and label-free detection of urea content in aqueous solutions is of great interest in chemical, biomedical, industrial, and automotive applications. In this work, we demonstrate a compact and low-cost instrumental configuration for label-free, reagent-free, and contactless detection of urea dissolved in water, which exploits the absorption properties of urea in the near-infrared wavelength region. The intensity of the radiation transmitted through the fluid under test, contained in a rectangle hollow glass tubing with an optical pathlength of 1 mm, is detected in two spectral bands. Two low-cost, low-power LEDs with emission spectra centered at λ = 1450 nm and λ = 2350 nm are used as readout sources. The photodetector is positioned on the other side of the tubing, in front of the LEDs. The detection performances of a photodiode and of a thermal optical power detector have been compared, exploiting different approaches for LED driving current modulation and photodetected signal processing. The implemented detection system has been tested on urea-water solutions with urea concentrations from 0 up to 525 mg/mL as well as on two samples of commercial diesel exhaust fluid ("AdBlue™"). Considering the transmitted intensity in presence of the urea-water solution, at λ = 1450 nm and λ = 2350 nm, normalized to the transmitted intensity in presence of water, we demonstrate that their ratio is linearly related to urea concentration on a wide range and with good sensitivity.

Absorption properties by irregularly shaped particles with inclusions at visible and near-infrared wavelength regions

The absorption properties of snow and ice particles containing impurities such as black carbon (BC) and mineral dust (DS) were investigated using the geometrical optics approximation method (GOM). This study focuses on analyzing the single scattering co-albedo (SSCA) characteristics of non-spherical particles, aiming to enhance the interpretation of radiation observations in snow and ice regions. Particle sizes were varied (rva=50,200 and 500μm) and two types of inclusions (1 ppmw of BC and 100 ppmw DS) were considered. Significant differences in SSCA, ranging from one to two orders of magnitude were observed at λ=0.5μm between the “homogeneous model” with effective medium approximation method (EMA) and the “inhomogeneous model” with 50 BC inclusions. Similarly, differences of a factor of 2 to 4 were found for DS with 100 ppmw at λ=0.5μm and BC with 1 ppmw at λ=0.875μm. To bridge intermediate SSCA values between these models, we propose an “inhomogeneous model with EMA”, introducing two parameters to account for impurity concentration and inclusion aggregation. Our findings highlight the importance of selecting appropriate single scattering calculation methods in the analysis of observation data, particularly when dealing with BC impurity with significant absorption characteristics. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of solar radiation absorption in snow and ice regions, with potential implications for the optical remote sensing of snow and ice and climate modeling studies.

Clarifying the role of carboxyl functionality in squaraines towards aggregation and self-assembly through photophysical characterization and BSA interactions

The demand for near-infrared (NIR) probes with robust and stable fluorescence signals has surged, driven by their applications in optical sensing and bioimaging. Squraine dyes as NIR fluorescent probes have gained significant traction. However, understanding their behavior in aqueous media is important for their successful application. Herein we report the synthesis and photophysical characterization of carboxy-functionalized unsymmetrical squaraine dyes capable of light absorption and emission in the near-infrared (NIR) wavelength region. Structural variations in alkyl chain length, and spacer chain length between the primary chromophore and –COOH group were systematically introduced to investigate their impact on self-assembly in aqueous media leading to dye aggregation and their differential interactions with Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) as a model protein. In phosphate buffer (PB) the absorption intensity decreased drastically along with pronounced shoulders due to dye aggregation leading to complete fluorescence quenching. However, in the presence of BSA, the intensity of shoulder bands reduced coupled with a sharp increase in the absorption associated with monomeric dye with the increasing concentration of BSA, indicating the prevention of dye aggregation owing to dye-BSA interactions. The prevention of dye aggregation due to dye-BSA interaction also led to a tremendous increase in the fluorescence intensities as a function of the increasing BSA concentrations. Site-selective study off BSA showed that these dyes bind preferably at Site-II using hydrophilic interactions. Thus, these dyes show great potential as FRET or fluorescent on/off probes for biosensing, non-covalent labeling of proteins, and fluorescent probes for bioimaging.

Design and fabrication of a liquid crystal polarization grating for mid- and far-infrared wavelengths.

A lot of research on liquid crystal polarization gratings (LCPGs) that can separate circularly polarized light with 100% diffraction efficiency has been conducted in the visible and near-infrared wavelength regions. In this paper, we tried to design and fabricate the LCPGs that are available for use in the mid- and far-infrared (MIR and FIR) wavelength regions. The materials for making LCPGs were selected in view of low absorption characteristics measured by the use of a Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer. LCPGs designed for 3.88µm and 9.5-10.6µm were fabricated, and we evaluated their diffraction properties experimentally. The MIR and FIR LCPGs should open new application fields of LC technologies including polarimetry, spectroscopy, and beam steering.

Titanium nitride-based hyperbolic metamaterial for near-infrared ultrasensitive sensing of microbes.

We demonstrate an ultrasensitive microbe sensor for the first time using a titanium nitride (TiN) nanowire-based hyperbolic metamaterial (HMM) structure. We detected the change in the resonance wavelength shift due to the inclusion of microbes in a freshwater environment employing the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. Our proposed HMM sensor exhibits strong bulk plasmon polariton (BPP) modes in the anisotropic hyperbolic regime (λ ≥ 590 nm) and operates in the near-infrared (NIR) wavelength region. We studied the impact of structural parameters on the resonance wavelength shift, where our proposed HMM sensor structure exhibited an outstanding sensing capability of 11 nm per bacteria. A limit of detection of 0.00008 RIU was achieved for our proposed HMM sensor structure. Additionally, we verified our results theoretically to calculate mode frequency shift by solving the effective medium theory (EMT). Our study revealed that HMM is the origin of highly sensitive BPP modes. We obtained two BPP modes, where the BPP mode at a longer wavelength (q = 1) exhibited the highest resonance wavelength shift compared to the BPP mode at a shorter wavelength (q = 2). More importantly, we demonstrated numerically the point-detection capability of our proposed HMM microbe sensor structure, which was unattainable in previously reported sensor work. Moreover, this sensor can be adapted to detect different viruses and bacteria. Our proposed TiN-based HMM structure can potentially be an ultrasensitive and straightforward microbe sensor for label-free detection.

All-silicon polarization-independent broadband achromatic metalens designed for the mid-wave and long-wave infrared.

Metasurfaces demonstrate excellent capabilities in manipulating the phase, amplitude and polarization of light. Metalens, as a typical kind of metasurface devices, shows great prospect in simplifying imaging systems. However, like diffractive optical elements, intrinsic dispersion of metasurfaces is high. Thus, significant chromatic aberration is present in common metalenses, deteriorating imaging quality under broadband illumination condition and limiting their applications. To tackle this problem, broadband achromatic metalenses have been proposed and demonstrated in the visible and near-infrared wavelength regions so far. However, broadband achromatic metalens working in the mid-wave and long-wave infrared is still rare. In this paper, thanks to the ingenious design of meta-units that provide the required local phase and phase dispersion, several all-silicon broadband achromatic metalenses working in the mid-wave infrared (3-5 µm) or long-wave infrared (8-14 µm) wavelengths are proposed. Numerical simulation results demonstrate that the designed broadband achromatic metalenses can provide a near-constant focal length with small deviations and an average focusing efficiency of about 70% over the whole operation bandwidths. In addition, these metalenses hold near diffraction-limited focusing capability and polarization-independent focusing features. The achromatic metalenses proposed here are beneficial for improving imaging quality under broadband illumination and increasing detection efficiency of mid-wave and long-wave infrared detection systems.

Optical and electrical properties of niobium-doped indium oxide thin films prepared by co-sputtering technique

Indium oxide (In2O3) based thin films have attracted much attention due to their high transparency and low resistivity. In order to obtain good transmittance and high conductivity, niobium (Nb) element was chosen as dopant in In2O3 in this study. Nb-doped In2O3 thin films (InNbO) were deposited on substrate by co-sputtering technique. The influence of Nb content on the structural, optical and electrical properties of InNbO thin films was systematically investigated. These thin films are compact and uniform without obvious pores and cracks. And InNbO is cubic bixbyite structure similar to In2O3. When Nb content is 1.8 at%, the resistivity of InNbO is as low as 8.29 × 10−3 Ω·cm. The prepared thin films exhibit high optical transmittance from visible to near-infrared wavelength regions. The average transmittance of InNbO thin films can reach 80.74 % in visible light range (380 ∼ 750 nm), and 75.71 % in near-infrared region (750 ∼ 2400 nm).

Squaric Acid Core Substituted Unsymmetrical Squaraine Dyes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: Effect of Electron Acceptors on Their Photovoltaic Performance

The design and development of sensitizing dyes possessing wide-wavelength photon harvesting encompassing visible to near-infrared (NIR) wavelength regions are unavoidable for increasing the overall efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). In this study, three far-red-sensitive squaraine sensitizers were designed computationally, synthesized, and characterized, aiming towards their suitability as a potential sensitizer for DSSCs. It has been found that the incorporation of an electron acceptor moiety in the central squaraine core brought about a red shift in the absorption maximum (λmax) and the emergence of a secondary absorption band in the blue region, thus broadening the photon-harvesting window. In addition, it also lowered the dye’s HOMO energy level enabling a facile regeneration of the photo-excited dye, which improved the photovoltaic performance of SQ-223, exhibiting a photoconversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.67%. Thereafter, to address the issue of wide-wavelength photon harvesting, DSSCs were fabricated by co-adsorbing two complementary dyes SQ-223 and D-131 in various molar ratios. The DSSC fabricated with D-131 and SQ-223 in 9:1 molar ratio displayed the best photovoltaic performance with a PCE of 5.81%, a significantly higher PCE when compared to corresponding individual dye-based DSSCs containing D-131 (3.94%) and SQ-223 (4.67%).

Acousto-Optic Transfer Function Control by a Phased-Array Piezoelectric Transducer

We present analysis and numerical simulations of the acousto-optic spatial filter (AOSF) transfer function under the condition of dual-transducer operation and phase control. Based on these simulations, the AOSF crystal configuration is optimized for operation in the near-infrared wavelength region from 0.7 to 1.0 μm. We demonstrate that ultrasonic phase control can provide efficient tuning of the transfer function, which is independent of conventional frequency control. Thus, the application of phase control coupled with frequency control can reduce the transfer function asymmetry that is inherent to anisotropic Bragg diffraction in uniaxial crystals.

Magnesium fluoride microcavity-based non-fullerene semitransparent organic solar cells with high peak transmittance and low efficiency loss rate

Microcavity-based semitransparent organic solar cells (ST-OSCs) have become a hot issue in the research field of green energy harvesting due to their wider potential applications in colored photovoltaic glass, building-integrated photovoltaics, and so on. However, for this kind of ST-OSCs, high photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE) and high peak transmittance cannot usually be achieved simultaneously. To circumvent the problem, this paper proposes MgF2 microcavity with a structure of Au/Ag/MgF2/Ag for ST-OSCs so that high peak transmittance can be achieved at low cost of PCE. The device structure of ST-OSCs is Glass/ITO/ZnO/PTB7-Th: IEICO-4F/MoO3/Au/Ag/MgF2/Ag. By combining the high transmittance of MgF2 microcavities with the low absorption of IEICO-4F in the blue light, a colorful ST-OSCs with high blue light transmittance can be obtained. The IEICO-4F in the active layer shows strong optical absorption in the near-infrared wavelength region, but weak absorption in the visible region. The results demonstrate that the peak transmittance of ST-OSCs reached a high value of 48% at 440 nm and the PCE reached 10.4%. Such a high peak transmittance is achieved while the PCE reduction compared to the control opaque device is about 5%. The PCE loss rate at each peak transmittance is the lowest among the reported values for the similar ST-OSCs devices. By adjusting the thickness of MgF2, ST-OSCs with different colors can be obtained, the peak transmittance of which is over 32% and the PCE loss rate is less than 7.25%. This report provides a new approach to solve the trade-off between efficiency and transmittance of ST-OSCs.

Asymmetric Cross-Shaped Optical Antennas with Wide Spectral Tunability and High Optical Cross-Sections

Resonant optical antennas (ROAs) are nanodevices that can enhance the electromagnetic field in their vicinity and scatter the light in the far field. The enhanced field is localized in subdiffraction-limited volume. Their ability to exhibit strong field enhancement in the gap makes them suitable for coupling with quantum emitters. This paper introduced two novel bimodal and triple-modal asymmetric cross-shaped optical nanoantenna designs. The performance of the reported nanoantennas is numerically studied via the finite element method (FEM). The electric field enhancements and optical cross-sections are calculated to characterize the performance of the designs. These nanoantennas are low-symmetry and polarization-sensitive devices. Furthermore, the reported plasmonic nanostructures exhibit two or three tunable resonances in the optical and near-infrared wavelength regions with ultra-high field enhancement. The reported coupled cross-shaped exhibits a field enhancement of 45.9 for the high-energy resonance and 149.4 for the low-energy resonance, respectively, on ETOT/EIN\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\left|{E}_{\\mathrm{TOT}}\\right|/\\left|{E}_{\\mathrm{IN}}\\right|$$\\end{document} scale.

Toroidal electric dipole enabled chiral surface lattice resonances in stereo propeller metasurfaces

Surface lattice resonances (SLRs) are the coherent collective interactions between periodically arranged nanoparticles, which are generally considered to be formed by the resonant electric dipole, magnetic dipole, or electric quadrupole moments of a single nanoparticle coupled with the Rayleigh anomaly (RA). Here we reveal the first observation of the chiral SLRs that are formed by the coupling of the chiral toroidal electric dipole (TED) moment and RA mode through the theoretical design and experimental fabrication of a nano-kirigami based propeller metasurface. By engineering the rotational symmetry of the propeller, e.g., from C2 (C3) symmetry to C4 symmetry, we find that the electric dipole (electric quadrupolar) chiral SLRs have evolved into the TED associated chiral SLRs. Furthermore, it is found that the excitation amplitude of the TED moment can be tailored by controlling the stereo twisted height of the propeller and the spin of the incident light. Finally, the chiral TED moment enhanced circular dichroism is verified in the near-infrared wavelength region. Our study provides an effective yet simple scheme to manipulate the TED-dependent chiral SLRs, paving the way toward exploring the unconventional physical properties of TED and advanced chiroptical physics.

Asymmetric L-shaped resonant optical antennas with plasmon length tuning and high-electric field enhancement

L-shaped resonant optical antennas (ROAs) are low-symmetry plasmonic nanostructures with the unique ability to show two tunable resonances in the optical and near-infrared wavelength regions. The plasmon length of the so-called longitudinal dipolar fundamental plasmon mode of these asymmetric L-shaped ROAs can be used as plasmon resonance building blocks to design polarization-sensitive devices. This paper introduces and numerically analyzes a novel design of asymmetric L-shape ROAs. The reported design offers two resonance modes, i.e., bimodal longitudinal antenna resonance behavior with a high enhancement factor. These two resonances can be selectively excited by changing the linear polarization angle. It is found that the coupled L-shaped ROA with a very small 2 nm gap width exhibits field enhancements 40 and 147.3 on scale left|{E}_{TOT}right|/left|{E}_{IN}right| for the high energy and low energy resonance, respectively. The obtained results and the analysis open a new route for multiple plasmon resonance devices with ultra-high field enhancement that can be easily integrated with future nano-optical circuits with multiple operational frequencies.

Pulsation-induced Spectroscopic Variability of IRAS Z02229+6208

Monitoring of high-resolution spectra in the optical and near-infrared wavelength region was carried out for the early post-AGB stage star IRAS Z02229+6208 with the CARMENES instrument to reveal spectroscopic variability over the pulsation cycle of 154 days. Significant changes are seen in both the intensity and position of carbon-bearing molecular lines. Strong and broad CN red system lines, blueshifted up to 9.4 km s−1 relative to the stellar photosphere, are seen near the light minimum. Near the light maxima, the molecular features are weak and most of them are in emission, e.g., broad emissions in the CN red system (0,0) lines are seen. A site of formation of molecular absorptions and emissions appears to be an extended atmosphere of a cool post-AGB star affected by stellar pulsation. In addition, we observed narrow absorption lines of the C2 Phillips (2, 0), (3, 0) system and the CN red system (2,0), most likely related to the circumstellar envelope produced during the evolution on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB). An expansion velocity of the circumstellar shell was found to be V exp = −11.1 km s−1 relative to the stellar mass center, in agreement with that estimated before from CO lines. The observed spectroscopic variability seems to be typical for pulsating early post-AGB stage stars.

Evaluation of near-infrared spectroscopy as a contactless method for health monitoring of resin-based coating materials applied to concrete surfaces.

The surfaces of concrete structures are often coated with protective materials to minimize corrosion and weathering-based deterioration. Therefore, it is important to monitor the aging of the coating materials and their overall condition to extend the service lifetime of the structure effectively. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a contactless, nondestructive, rapid, and convenient method for material characterization; therefore, it is useful for onsite inspection of coating materials. Hence, in this study, we attempt to determine whether NIRS can be used for simple inspection for health monitoring of organic resin-based coating materials. In addition to identifying different severities of peeling damage, we characterize the ultraviolet-induced deterioration of coating materials with different thicknesses using diffuse reflection spectra acquired in the near-infrared wavelength region. For independent comparison with the NIR spectra, the state of the coating materials on the mortar specimens was analyzed using a combination of Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy, while the state of the underlying mortar specimens was analyzed using permeability and salt-water immersion tests. The results confirm that the NIRS could detect the degradation of coating materials at early stages of deterioration before their permeability had been affected. NIRS offers the possibility of intermittent monitoring of coating deterioration. In addition, because the NIR spectrometer is portable, it can help in inspecting high-rise areas and areas that are difficult to reach. Therefore, we believe that NIRS is a simple, safe, and inexpensive method for inspection of surface coating materials.

Near-Infrared Emitting of Zero-Dimensional Europium(II) Halide Scintillators: Energy Transfer Engineering via Sm2+ Doping

Near-infrared (NIR)-emitting scintillators, coupled with high quantum efficiency silicon-based photodetectors, have emerged as a promising solution for highly efficient radiation detection applications. However, the study of efficient NIR-emitting scintillators and their associated luminescence mechanism is still limited. In this work, we developed NIR-emitting zero-dimensional Cs4EuBr6 halide scintillators via Sm2+ doping. Single crystals of Cs4EuBr6 with varying Sm2+ concentrations were grown by the vertical Bridgman method. Under X-ray irradiation, the scintillation emission of highly Sm-doped Cs4EuBr6 single crystals is dominated by the Sm2+ 5d–4f emission peaking at 831 nm with a weak Eu2+ 5d–4f emission peaking at 443 nm. The energy transfer processes between Eu2+ and Sm2+ were investigated by using photoluminescence (PL) spectra, PL decay kinetics, and soft X-ray excited decay kinetics measurements. Based on the temperature-dependent PL decay results, we constructed a configurational coordinate diagram of Sm2+ in the Cs4EuBr6 host. Furthermore, we evaluated the gamma spectroscopy response of Cs4EuBr6:Sm single crystals using an avalanche photodiode detector known for its high sensitivity in the NIR wavelength region.

Synthesis of Nano-Structured Ge as Transmissive or Reflective Saturable Absorber for Mode-Locked Fiber Laser.

Amorphous-Ge (α-Ge) or free-standing nanoparticles (NPs) synthesized via hydrogen-free plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) were applied as transmissive or reflective saturable absorbers, respectively, for starting up passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber lasers (EDFLs). Under a threshold pumping power of 41 mW for mode-locking the EDFL, the transmissive α-Ge film could serve as a saturable absorber with a modulation depth of 52-58%, self-starting EDFL pulsation with a pulsewidth of approximately 700 fs. Under a high power of 155 mW, the pulsewidth of the EDFL mode-locked by the 15 s-grown α-Ge was suppressed to 290 fs, with a corresponding spectral linewidth of 8.95 nm due to the soliton compression induced by intra-cavity self-phase modulation. The Ge-NP-on-Au (Ge-NP/Au) films could also serve as a reflective-type saturable absorber to passively mode-lock the EDFL with a broadened pulsewidth of 3.7-3.9 ps under a high-gain operation with 250 mW pumping power. The reflection-type Ge-NP/Au film was an imperfect mode-locker, owing to their strong surface-scattered deflection in the near-infrared wavelength region. From the abovementioned results, both ultra-thin α-Ge film and free-standing Ge NP exhibit potential as transmissive and reflective saturable absorbers, respectively, for ultrafast fiber lasers.