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Stable, Surfactant-free Graphene-Styrene Methylmethacrylate Composite for Ultrafast Lasers

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Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Torrisi, Felice 
Milana, Silvia 
Jiang, Zhe 

Abstract

Graphene-polymer composites play an increasing role in photonic and optoelectronic applications, from ultrafast pulse generation to solar cells. We report the fabrication of an optical quality surfactant-free graphene-styrene methyl methacrylate composite, stable to large humidity and temperature ranges and show its use for photonic applications. The composite shows wavelength-independent linear absorption in the visible and near-infrared. When tested in a mode-locked laser, it allows the generation of stable ∼326 fs mode-locked pulses at 1550 nm, unperturbed by environmental conditions. The composite continues to operate as a saturable absorber even under complete water immersion at 60◦C. This confirms its stability against high-temperature and humidity.

Description

This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Wiley via ttps://doi.org/10.1002/adom.201500760

Keywords

graphene, polymer composite, saturable absorber, ultrafast laser, liquid phase exfoliation

Journal Title

Advanced Functional Materials

Conference Name

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Volume Title

4

Publisher

Wiley
Sponsorship
We acknowledge funding from the synergy grant Hetero2D, the EU Graphene Flagship (n. 604391), a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award, the EPSRC grants EP/K01711X/1, EP/K017144/1, EP/L016087/1 and the EU FP7 project MEM4WIN. TH acknowledges support from a RAEng Research Fellowship (Graphlex). DP acknowledges support from Emmanuel College, Cambridge.