Sensitive saturable absorber and optical switch of epsilon-near-zero medium. (31st May 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Zhongmian; Liu, Jingjing; Hao, Qianqian; Liu, Jie
• Is Part Of: Applied physics express. Volume 12:Number 6(2019)
• Publication Date: 2019-05-31
• Subjects: Physics -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals; 621.05
• DOI: 10.7567/1882-0786/ab21e3
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1882-0778

Abstract

Abstract: We investigated the nonlinear absorption and optical switching properties of a typical Epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) thin film made of indium tin oxide (ITO) in the near-infrared region. ITO has a low saturable absorption intensity with the advantages of electric field enhancement. The Q-switching performance in the near-infrared region was demonstrated with the ITO as a passive Q-switcher in the bulk lasers for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. This work shows that ENZ materials have promising applications in ultrafast photonics and may be helpful for the development of further nonlinear optoelectronic devices.