Tunable Broadband Nonlinear Optical Properties of Black Phosphorus Quantum Dots for Femtosecond Laser Pulses

Broadband nonlinear optical properties from 500 to 1550 nm of ultrasmall black phosphorus quantum dots (BPQDs) have been extensively investigated by using the open-aperture Z-scan technique. Our results show that BPQDs exhibit significant nonlinear absorption in the visible range, but saturable absorption in the near-infrared range under femtosecond excitation. The calculated nonlinear absorption coefficients were found to be (7.49 ± 0.23) × 10^-3, (1.68 ± 0.078) × 10^-3 and (0.81 ± 0.03) × 10^-3 cm/GW for 500, 700 and 900 nm, respectively. Femtosecond pump-probe measurements performed on BPQDs revealed that two-photon absorption is responsible for the observed nonlinear absorption. The saturable absorption behaviors observed at 1050, 1350 and 1550 nm are due to ground-state bleaching induced by photo-excitation. Our results suggest that BPQDs have great potential in applications as broadband optical limiters in the visible range or saturable absorbers in the near-infrared range for ultrafast laser pulses. These ultrasmall BPQDs are potentially useful as broadband optical elements in ultrafast photonics devices.