Characterization of nonlinear properties of black phosphorus nanoplatelets with femtosecond pulsed Z-scan measurements

The nonlinear properties of black phosphorus (BP) nanoplatelets (NPs) have been characterized with Z-scan measurements under 800-nm femtosecond pulsed laser excitation. A transition from saturable absorption (SA) to reverse saturable absorption (RSA) with the increase of laser intensity was observed in the open-aperture (OA) measurements. Simultaneously, closed-aperture (CA) measurements were carried out to investigate the nonlinear refractive index of BP NPs together, and a value of n2≃(6.8±0.2)×10−13  m2/W was obtained. The nonlinear absorption properties were analyzed according to the band structure of BP. A theoretical analysis based on SA and two-photon absorption (TPA) was used to determine the nonlinear absorption coefficients from the experimental results, and the TPA coefficient at 800 nm was estimated about (4.5±0.2)×10−10  m/W.