Nonlinear optical absorption features in few-layered hybrid Ti₃C₂(OH)₂/Ti₃C₂F₂ MXene for optical pulse generation in...

In the present work, we report the structural properties of the two dimensional (2D) few-layered Ti₃C₂(OH)₂/Ti₃C₂F₂ hybrid MXene synthesized via the HF acid etching method. Various characterizations were exploited to demonstrate the 2D layered structural properties of the hybrid MXene membranes. The density functional theory (DFT) simulation indicated the hybrid MXene possessed the small enough band gap, which could benefit the nonlinear optical applications in the infrared region. By the conventional open-aperture Z-scan technique, typical nonlinear saturable features were measured. Consequently, the hybrid MXene membranes exhibited the excellent saturable absorption properties at 1 and 1.3 µm. As a saturable absorber, passively Q-switched Nd:YVO₄ lasers with the prepared hybrid MXene membranes were realized at 1 and 1.3 µm, respectively, producing the stable Q-switching pulse train with a shortest duration of 130 ns.