Elsevier

Optical Materials

Volume 36, Issue 1, November 2013, Pages 112-117
Optical Materials

Optical limiting action of few layered graphene oxide dispersed in different solvents

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optmat.2013.04.036Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Few layered graphene oxide was prepared and characterized.

  • Few layered GO dispersions exhibit strong optical limiting depending on the solvent.

  • Few layered GO exhibited superior optical limiting than that of single layer GO.

Abstract

In this work, we report on new results regarding the nonlinear optical response and the optical limiting action of few layered graphene oxide dispersed in various organic solvents, such as N,N-Dimethylformamide (DMF), Tetrahydrofuran (THF), (N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone (NMP), Chlorobenzene (CB), 1,2-Dichlorobenzene (o-DCB), and 1-Chloronaphthalene (CN). Few layered graphene oxide was found to exhibit saturable absorption for low incident intensity and reverse saturable absorption at higher intensity. Its nonlinear absorption was found to be significantly larger than that of single layer graphene oxide, depending upon the solvent used becoming maximum for heavier solvents like e.g. CN and o-DCB. The present results are discussed and compared with other literature reports.

Introduction

It’s the wide range of potential products and applications that have given nanotechnology its enormous growth during the last few years. These prospects have boosted an enormous research effort for materials exhibiting important nonlinear optical properties. In that view, several nanomaterials have been shown to exhibit remarkable nonlinear optical (NLO) properties, essential for applications like optical limiters, optical switches and other optoelectronic/photonic devices [1], [2], [3], [4]. The amazing carbon allotropes, discovered in recent decades, are the most representative examples of nanomaterials, presenting all types of morphologies and functionalities. 0D (fullerenes), 1D (carbon nanotubes CNTs), 2D (graphene) and 3D (carbon nanoparticles) structures have been discovered and studied extensively, exhibiting diverse NLO properties. Fullerenes showed large third-order optical nonlinearity and reverse saturable absorption (RSA) at certain wavelengths [5], [6], CNTs showed ultrafast third-order nonlinearities and saturable absorption (SA) [7], carbon black suspensions show strong thermally-induced nonlinear scattering effects giving rise to efficient optical limiting (OL) [8], while graphene showed ultra-broad-band resonant NLO response [3], [9].

Optical limiters (OL) are an important class of devices used for the control of the laser radiation intensity [10]. An ideal optical limiter, should have a linear transmittance at low input intensities, while it should exhibit constant transmittance above a particular threshold intensity, therefore, protecting sensitive photonic devices or the human eye from damage. Moreover, for real life applications, a practical optical limiter has to satisfy particular requirements such as low optical limiting threshold, broadband and fast response, high linear transmittance and physical/chemical stability. The recently discovered graphene oxide (GO) meets most of these requirements for an efficient optical limiter. However, so far, the exploitation of pure and functionalized graphene oxide for optical limiting applications has been focused mainly to composites and water dispersions [11]. So, it is among the motivations of the present work to extend our knowledge on GO, investigating the optical limiting performance and the nonlinear optical response of few layered GO dispersed in different organic solvents and compare these properties with these of single layer GO and other benchmark materials such as the C60 fullerene.

Section snippets

Preparation and characterization of GO

GO was prepared from purified natural graphite powder (Alfa Aesar) according to a modified Hummers’ method [12]. Specifically, 5 g of graphite and 2.5 g of sodium nitrate were stirred with 115 mL of sulfuric acid (98%). The mixture was then cooled in an ice bath. With vigorous stirring, 15 g of potassium permanganate was then added over a period of 2 h. In the subsequent 4 h, the reaction mixture was allowed to reach room temperature before being heated to 35 °C for 30 min. Then it was poured into a

Results and discussion

Initially, the strong degree of oxidation of graphene oxide was verified using the FTIR spectroscopy. Fig. 1 presents FTIR spectra of the pure GO, where the peaks of OH (Osingle bondH stretching vibrations) at ∼3425 cm−1, Csingle bondH stretching at 2854 and 2922 cm−1, Cdouble bondO (carboxylic acid and carbonyl moieties) at ∼1715 cm−1 and the graphitic domains of Csingle bondC at ∼1577 cm−1 can be clearly seen. Moreover, a band from 980–1250 containing the Csingle bondO (1019 cm−1) and the Osingle bondH (1217 cm−1) deformation, respectively, of carboxylic acid

Conclusions

The nonlinear optical response and the optical limiting behavior of few layered graphene oxide dispersed in various organic solvents was investigated under 4 ns, 532 nm laser pulses. Few layered graphene oxide was found to exhibit reverse saturable absorption at low input intensity, this behavior reversing to saturable absorption at higher intensities. Moreover, its nonlinear absorption was found to be larger than that of single layer graphene oxide, a situation which can be attributed to the

Acknowledgements

This research has been co-financed (NL, SC) by the European Union (European Social Fund – ESF) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program “Education and Lifelong Learning” of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) - Research Funding Program: HERAKLEITUS II and THALIS. Investing in knowledge society through the European Social Fund. K.I. acknowledges support from the European Commission and General Secretariat for Research and Technology (Greece) for a National Strategic

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