Voltage-controlled nonlinear optical properties in gold nanofilms via electrothermal effect

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 6372 - 12
• Main Authors: Lv, Changjian, Meng, Fanchao, Cui, Linghao, Jiao, Yadong, Jia, Zhixu, Qin, Weiping, Qin, Guanshi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 29.07.2024; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/301/1019/385; 639/624/1020/1090; 639/624/400/1021; Absorbers; Absorptivity; Damping; Dynamic control; Electric potential; Fiber lasers; Gold; Humanities and Social Sciences; Laser mode locking; Lasers; Light sources; multidisciplinary; Nanostructure; Nonlinear control; Nonlinear optics; Nonlinear response; Optical properties; Plasmons; Q switched lasers; Refractivity; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Signal processing; Switching; Voltage; Wavelength
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-50665-7

Dynamic control of the optical properties of gold nanostructures is crucial for advancing photonics technologies spanning optical signal processing, on-chip light sources and optical computing. Despite recent advances in tunable plasmons in gold nanostructures, most studies are limited to the linear or static regime, leaving the dynamic manipulation of nonlinear optical properties unexplored. This study demonstrates the voltage-controlled Kerr nonlinear optical response of gold nanofilms via the electrothermal effect. By applying relatively low voltages (~10 V), the nonlinear absorption coefficient and refractive index are reduced by 40.4% and 33.1%, respectively, due to the increased damping coefficient of gold nanofilm. Furthermore, a voltage-controlled all-fiber gold nanofilm saturable absorber is fabricated and used in mode-locked fiber lasers, enabling reversible wavelength-tuning and operation regimes switching (e.g., mode-locking—Q-switched mode-locking). These findings advance the understanding of electrically controlled nonlinear optical responses in gold nanofilms and offer a flexible approach for controlling fiber laser operations. Here the authors demonstrate voltage-controlled nonlinear optical response of gold nanofilm via electrothermal effect. They fabricate a voltage-controlled saturable absorber for achieving wavelength-tunability/operation-regime switching in a fiber laser.