All the optical properties of materials are derived from dielectric function. In spectral region where the dielectric permittivity approaches zero, known as epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) region, the propagating light within the material attains a very high phase velocity, and meanwhile the material exhibits strong optical nonlinearity. The interplay between the linear and nonlinear optical response in these materials thus offers unprecedented pathways for all-optical control and device design. Here the authors demonstrate ultrafast all-optical modulation based on a typical ENZ material of indium tin oxide (ITO) nanocrystals (NCs), accessed by a wet-chemistry route. In the ENZ region, the authors find that the optical response in these ITO NCs is associated with a strong nonlinear character, exhibiting sub-picosecond response time (corresponding to frequencies over 2 THz) and modulation depth up to ≈160%. This large optical nonlinearity benefits from the highly confined geometry in addition to the ENZ enhancement effect of the ITO NCs. Based on these ENZ NCs, the authors successfully demonstrate a fiber optical switch that allows switching of continuous laser wave into femtosecond laser pulses. Combined with facile processibility and tunable optical properties, these solution-processed ENZ NCs may offer a scalable and printable material solution for dynamic photonic and optoelectronic devices.

Field effect relies on the nonlinear current-voltage relation in semiconductors; analogously, materials that respond nonlinearly to an optical field can be utilized for optical modulation. For instance, nonlinear optical (NLO) materials bearing a saturable absorption (SA) feature an on-off switching behavior at the critical pumping power, thus enabling ultrafast laser pulse generation with high peak power. SA has been observed in diverse materials preferably in its nanoscale form, including both gaped semiconductor nanostructures and gapless materials like graphene; while the presence of optical bandgap and small carrier density have limited the active spectral range and intensity. We show here that solution-processed plasmonic semiconductor nanocrystals exhibit superbroadband (over 400 THz) SA, meanwhile with large modulation depth (∼7 dB) and ultrafast recovery (∼315 fs). Optical modulators fabricated using these plasmonic nanocrystals enable mode-locking and Q-switching operation across the near-infrared and mid-infrared spectral region, as exemplified here by the pulsed lasers realized at 1.0, 1.5, and 2.8 μm bands with minimal pulse duration down to a few hundreds of femtoseconds. The facile accessibility and superbroadband optical nonlinearity offered by these nonconventional plasmonic nanocrystals may stimulate a growing interest in the exploiting of relevant NLO and photonic applications.

We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate the up-conversion fluorescence control via resonance-mediated two-photon absorption in rare-earth ions by varying both the laser polarization and phase. We show that both the laser polarization and phase can control the up-conversion fluorescence, and the up-conversion fluorescence intensity is decreased when the laser polarization changes from linear through elliptical to circular. We also show that the laser polarization will affect the control efficiency of the up-conversion fluorescence by varying the laser phase, and the circular polarization will reduce the control efficiency. Furthermore, we suggest that the control efficiency by varying the laser polarization and the effect of the laser polarization on the control efficiency by varying the laser phase can be artificially manipulated by controlling the laser spectral bandwidth. This optical control method opens a new opportunity to control the up-conversion fluorescence of rare-earth ions, which may have significant impact on the related applications of rare-earth ions.

Here, we show that solution-processed Cu-Sn-S semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) demonstrate a tunable localized surface plasmon resonance band in the near infrared region, where strong saturable absorption occurs. A saturable absorber based on these plasmonic NCs enables the construction of a stable mode-locked femtosecond fiber laser operating at the telecommunication band.

The ability to tune color output of nanomaterials is very important for their applications in laser, optoelectronic device, color display and multiplexed biolabeling. Here we first propose a femtosecond pulse shaping technique to realize the up-conversion fluorescence tuning in lanthanide-doped nanocrystals dispersed in the glass. The multiple subpulse formation by a square phase modulation can create different excitation pathways for various up-conversion fluorescence generations. By properly controlling these excitation pathways, the multicolor up-conversion fluorescence can be finely tuned. This color tuning by the femtosecond pulse shaping technique is realized in single material by single-color laser field, which is highly desirable for further applications of the lanthanide-doped nanocrystals. This femtosecond pulse shaping technique opens an opportunity to tune the color output in the lanthanide-doped nanocrystals, which may bring a new revolution in the control of luminescence properties of nanomaterials.

Improving up-conversion luminescence efficiency of rare-earth ions is always a research hotspot because of its important applications in laser source, color display, photoelectric conversion and multiplexed biolabeling.

Femtosecond laser fabrication outperforms the traditional fabrication techniques with high precision, high efficiency, low collateral damage and wide applicability, which has shown to be a powerful tool in precision machining. Imaging the ultrafast dynamics of femtosecond laser fabrication is necessary for understanding the processing mechanism and for establishing the corresponding physical models. Up to now, ultrafast measurement techniques based on the pump−probe strategy are the most used methods. However, they are limited by laser energy stability and materials surface uniformity, which have a heavy impact on the dynamic measurement precision of femtosecond laser fabrication. To overcome this limitation of the traditional pump−probe techniques, we developed chirped spectral mapping ultrafast photography (CSMUP), which can achieve single-shot real-time ultrafast imaging with a frame rate of about 250 billion frames per second (temporal frame interval of 4 ps) and a spatial resolution of less than 833 nm. We experimentally imaged the dynamics of femtosecond laser ablation in silicon under a 400 nm femtosecond laser exposure with CSMUP, and the experimental result agreed well with previous theoretical models. CSMUP provides a new strategy to improve the efficiency and accuracy of femtosecond laser fabrication by a single-shot dynamic measurement of the interaction between the femtosecond laser and materials, and it is expected to work as a real-time detection method for various ultrafast phenomena.

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