The excellent optical properties of MXene provide new opportunities for short-pulse lasers. A diode-pumped passively Q-switched laser at 1.3 μm wavelength with MXene Ti₃C₂T_x as saturable absorber was achieved for the first time. The stable passively Q-switched laser has 454 ns pulse width and 162 kHz repetition rate at 4.5 W incident pumped power. The experimental results show that the MXene Ti₃C₂T_x saturable absorber can be used as an optical modulator to generate short pulse lasers in a solid-state laser field.

Surface plasmon polariton (SPP) nanolaser, which can achieve an all-optical circuit, is a major research topic in the field of micro light source. In this study, we examine a novel SPP graphene nanolaser in an optoelectronic integration field. The proposed nanolaser consists of metallic silver, two-dimensional (2D) graphene and high refractive index semiconductor of indium gallium arsenide phosphorus. Compared with other metals, Ag can reduce the threshold and propagation loss. The SPP field, excited by coupling Ag and InGaAsP, can be enhanced by the 2D material of graphene. In the proposed nanolaser, the maximum value of propagation loss is approximately 0.055 dB/μ, and the normalized mode area is constantly less than 0.05, and the best threshold can achieve 3380 cm^-1 simultaneously. Meanwhile, the proposed nanolaser can be fabricated by conventional materials and work in optical communication (1550 nm), which can be easily achieved with current nanotechnology. It is also an important method that will be used to overcome the challenges of high speed, miniaturization, and integration in optoelectronic integrated technology.

Ultrafast pulse generation was demonstrated in thulium doped fiber laser mode locked by magnetron sputtering deposited Sb₂Te₃ with the modulation depth, non-saturable loss, and saturable intensity of 38%, 31.2%, and 3.3 MW/cm², respectively. Stable soliton pulses emitting at 1930.07 nm were obtained with pulse duration of 1.24 ps, a 3-dB spectral bandwidth of 3.87 nm, an average output power of 130 mW, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 84 dB. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of Sb₂Te₃-based SA in fiber lasers at 2-μm regime.

Transverse localization of the optical Tamm plasmon (OTP) is studied in a metal-distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) structure with a one-dimensional disordered layer embedded at the interface between the metal and the DBR. The embedded disordered layer induces multiple scattering and interference of light, forming the light localization in the transverse direction. This together with the formation of Tamm plasmonic modes at the metal-DBR interface (i.e., the confinement of light in the longitudinal direction), gives birth to the so called transverse-localized Tamm plasmon. It is shown that for both transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) polarized light injection, the excited transverse-localized Tamm plasmon broadens and splits the dispersion curve due to spatial incoherence in the transverse direction, thus proving the stronger light confinement especially in the TE polarized injection. By adding the gain medium, specific random lasing modes are observed. The proposed study could be an efficient way of trapping and locally enhancing light on a subwavelength scale, which is useful in applications of random lasers, optical sensing, and imaging.

In this study, an InGaN lighting-emitting diode (LED) containing GaN/AlGaN/GaN triangular barriers is proposed and investigated numerically. The simulation results of output performance, carrier concentration, and radiative recombination rate indicate that the proposed LED has a higher output power and an internal quantum efficiency, and a lower efficiency droop than the LED containing conventional GaN or AlGaN barriers. These improvements mainly arise from the modified energy bands, which is evidenced by analyzing the LED energy band diagram and electrostatic field near the active region. The modified energy bands effectively improve carrier injection and confinement, which significantly reduces electron leakage and increases the rate of radiative recombination in the quantum wells.

We demonstrate a nanosecond mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) based on a reduced graphene oxide (RGO) saturable absorber (SA). The RGO SA is prepared by depositing the graphene oxide (GO) on fluorine mica through thermal reduction of GO. A scanning electron microscope (SEM), Raman spectrometer, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) are adopted to analyze the RGO characteristics. The results show that the reduction degree of graphene oxide is very high. By embedding the RGO SA into the EDFL cavity, a stable mode-locked fiber laser is achieved with a central wavelength of 1567.29 nm and repetition rate of 12.66 MHz. The maximum output power and the minimum pulse duration are measured to be 18.22 mW and 1.38 ns respectively. As far as we know, the maximum output power of 18.22 mW is higher than those of other nanosecond mode-locked oscillators reported. Such a nanosecond pulse duration and megahertz repetition rate make this mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser a suitable seed oscillator for high-power applications and chirped pulse amplifications.

An ultrasonic sensitivity-improved fiber-optic Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) is proposed and employed for ultrasonic imaging of seismic physical models (SPMs). The FPI comprises a flexible ultra-thin gold film and the end face of a graded-index multimode fiber (MMF), both of which are enclosed in a ceramic tube. The MMF in a specified length can collimate the diverged light beam and compensate for the light loss inside the air cavity, leading to an increased spectral fringe visibility and thus a steeper spectral slope. By using the spectral sideband filtering technique, the collimated FPI shows an improved ultrasonic response. Moreover, two-dimensional images of two SPMs are achieved in air by reconstructing the pulse-echo signals through using the time-of-flight approach. The proposed sensor with easy fabrication and compact size can be a good candidate for high-sensitivity and high-precision nondestructive testing of SPMs.

We demonstrate a passively harmonic mode-locked (PHML) fiber laser operating at the L-band using carbon nanotubes polyvinyl alcohol (CNTs-PVA) film. Under suitable pump power and an appropriate setting of the polarization controller (PC), the 54^th harmonic pulses at the L-band are generated with the side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) better than 44 dB and a repetition frequency of 503.37 MHz. Further increasing the pump power leads to a higher frequency of 550 MHz with compromised stability of 38.5 dB SMSR. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration on the generation of L-band PHML pulses from an Er-doped fiber laser based on CNTs.

Graphene plasmons have become promising candidates for deep-subwavelength nanoscale optical devices due to their strong field confinement and low damping. Among these nanoscale optical devices, band-pass filter for wavelength selection and noise filtering are key devices in an integrated optical circuit. However, plasmonic filters are still oversized because large resonant cavities are needed to perform frequency selection. Here, an ultra-compact filter integrated in a graphene plasmonic waveguide was designed, where a rectangular resonant cavity is inside a graphene nanoribbon waveguide. The properties of the filter were studied using the finite-difference time-domain method and demonstrated using the analytical model. The results demonstrate the band-pass filter has a high quality factor (20.36) and electrically tunable frequency response. The working frequency of the filter could also be tuned by modifying the cavity size. Our work provides a feasible structure for a graphene plasmonic nano-filter for future use in integrated optical circuits.

All-solid-state strong coupling systems with large vacuum Rabi splitting energy have great potential applications in future quantum information technologies, such as quantum manipulations, quantum information storage and processing, and ultrafast optical switches. Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have recently been explored as excellent candidates for the observation of solid-state strong coupling phenomena. In this work, from both experimental and theoretical aspects, we explored the strong coupling effect by integrating an individual plasmonic gold nanorod into the monolayer tungsten diselenide (WSe₂). Evident anti-crossing behavior was observed from the coupled energy diagram at room temperature; a Rabi splitting energy of 98 meV was extracted.

Surface plasmonic effects of metallic particles have been known to be an effective method to improve the performances of light emitting didoes. In this work, we report the sputtered Au nanoparticles enhanced electroluminescence in inverted quantum dot light emitting diodes (ITO/Au NPs/ZnMgO/QDs/TFB/PEDOT:PSS/Al). By combining the time-resolved photoluminescence, transient electroluminescence, and ultraviolet photoelectron spectrometer measurements, the enhancement of the internal field enhanced exciton coupling to surface plasmons and the electron injection rate increasing with Au nanoparticles' incorporation can be explained. Phenomenological numerical calculations indicate that the electron mobility of the electron transport layer increases from 1.39×10^-5 cm²/V·s to 1.91×10^-5 cm²/V·s for Au NPs modified device. As a result, the maximum device luminescence is enhanced by 1.41 fold (from 14600 cd/cm² to 20720 cd/cm²) and maximum current efficiency is improved by 1.29 fold (from 3.12 cd/A to 4.02 cd/A).

Black phosphorus (BP), an attractive two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor, is widely used in the fields of optoelectronic devices, biomedicine, and chemical sensing. Silver ion (Ag⁺), a commonly used additive in food industry, can sterilize and keep food fresh. But excessive intake of Ag⁺ will harm human health. Therefore, high sensitive, fast and simple Ag⁺ detection method is significant. Here, a high-performance BP field effect transistor (FET) sensor is fabricated for Ag⁺ detection with high sensitivity, rapid detection speed, and wide detection concentration range. The detection limit for Ag⁺ is 10^-10 mol/L. Testing time for each sample by this method is 60 s. Besides, the mechanism of BP-FET sensor for Ag⁺ detection is investigated systematically. The simple BP-FET sensor may inspire some relevant research and potential applications, such as providing an effective method for the actual detection of Ag⁺, especially in witnessed inspections field of food.

A hybrid structure based on a planar waveguide (PWG) mode coupling a long-range surface plasmon resonance (LRSPR) mode is proposed to enhance the GH shift. Both the PWG mode and LRSPR mode can be in strong resonance, and these two modes can be coupled together due to the normal-mode splitting. The largest GH shift of PWG-coupled LRSPR structure is 4156 times that of the incident beam, which is 23 times and 3.6 times that of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) structure and the LRSPR structure, respectively. As a GH shift sensor, the highest sensitivity of 4.68×10⁷λ is realized in the coupled structure. Compared with the sensitivity of the traditional SPR structure, the sensitivity of our structure is increased by more than 2 orders, which theoretically indicates that the proposed configuration can be applied to the field of high-sensitivity sensors in the future.

The Goos-Hänchen (GH) shift of graphene in the terahertz frequency range is investigated, and an extremely high GH shift is obtained owing to the excitation of surface plasmon resonance in graphene in the modified Otto configuration. It is shown that the GH shift can be positive or negative, and can be enhanced by introducing a nonlinearity in the substrate. Large and bistable GH shifts are demonstrated to be due to the hysteretic behavior of the reflectance phase. The bistable GH shift can be manipulated by changing the thickness of the air gap and the Fermi level or relaxation time of graphene.

The W₁₈O₄₉ nanoflowers with a diameter of 500 nm are prepared by a facile hydrothermal method. The Er-Yb:NaYF₄ nanoparticles are adsorbed on the petals (the position of the strongest local electric field on W₁₈O₄₉ nanoflowers). With a 976 nm laser diode (LD) as an excitation source, the selectively green upconversion luminescence (UCL) is observed to be enhanced by two orders of magnitude in Er-Yb:NaYF₄/W₁₈O₄₉ nanoflowers heterostructures. It suggests that the near infrared (NIR)-excited localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of W₁₈O₄₉ is primarily responsible for the enhanced UCL, which could be partly reabsorbed by the W₁₈O₄₉, thus leading to the selective enhancement of green UCL for the Er-Yb:NaYF₄. The fluorescence intensity ratio is investigated as a function of temperature based on the intense green UCL, which indicates that Er-Yb:NaYF₄/W₁₈O₄₉ nanoflower heterostructures have good potential for developing into temperature sensors.

Due to the remarkable carrier mobility and nonlinear characteristic, MoS₂ is considered to be a powerful competitor as an effective optical modulated material in fiber lasers. In this paper, the MoS₂ films are prepared by the chemical vapor deposition method to guarantee the high quality of the crystal lattice and uniform thickness. The transfer of the films to microfiber and the operation of gold plated films ensure there is no heat-resistant damage and anti-oxidation. The modulation depth of the prepared integrated microfiber-MoS₂ saturable absorber is 11.07%. When the microfiber-MoS₂ saturable absorber is used as a light modulator in the Q-switching fiber laser, the stable pulse train with a pulse duration of 888 ns at 1530.9 nm is obtained. The ultimate output power and pulse energy of output pulses are 18.8 mW and 88 nJ, respectively. The signal-to-noise ratio up to 60 dB indicates the good stability of the laser. This work demonstrates that the MoS₂ saturable absorber prepared by the chemical vapor deposition method can serve as an effective nonlinear control device for the Q-switching fiber laser.

We experimentally demonstrate a femtosecond mode-locked thulium-holmium (Tm-Ho) co-doped fiber laser incorporating a saturable absorber (SA) based on a bulk-structured bismuth selenide (Bi₂Se₃) topological insulator (TI). The SA was prepared by depositing a mechanically exfoliated Bi₂Se₃ TI layer onto a side-polished optical fiber platform. Unlike high-quality nano-structured Bi₂Se₃ TI-based SA, bulk-structured Bi₂Se₃ with non-negligible oxidation was used as a saturable absorption material for this experimental demonstration due to its easy fabrication process. The saturation power and modulation depth of the prepared SA were measured to be ~28.6 W and ~13.4%, respectively. By incorporating the prepared SA into a Tm-Ho co-doped fiber ring cavity, stable soliton pulses with a temporal width of ~853 fs could be generated at 1912.12 nm. The 3-dB bandwidth of the mode-locked pulse was measured to be ~4.87 nm. This experimental demonstration reaffirms that Bi₂Se₃ is a superb base material for mid-infrared passive mode-locking even under oxidation.