CrPS4 Nanoflakes as Stable Direct-Band-Gap 2D Materials for Ultrafast Pulse Laser Applications

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted considerable attention due to their potential for generating ultrafast pulsed lasers. Unfortunately, the poor stability of most layered 2D materials under air exposure leads to increased fabrication costs; this has limited their development for practical applications. In this paper, we describe the successful preparation of a novel, air-stable, and broadband saturable absorber (SA), the metal thiophosphate CrPS4, using a simple and cost-effective liquid exfoliation method. The van der Waals crystal structure of CrPS4 consists of chains of CrS6 units interconnected by phosphorus. In this study, we calculated the electronic band structures of CrPS4, revealing a direct band gap. The nonlinear saturable absorption properties, which were investigated using the P-scan technique at 1550 nm, revealed that CrPS4-SA had a modulation depth of 12.2% and a saturation intensity of 463 MW/cm2. Integration of the CrPS4-SA into Yb-doped fiber and Er-doped fiber laser cavities led to mode-locking for the first time, resulting in the shortest pulse durations of 298 ps and 500 fs at 1 and 1.5 µm, respectively. These results indicate that CrPS4 has great potential for broadband ultrafast photonic applications and could be developed into an excellent candidate for SA devices, providing new directions in the search for stable SA materials and for their design.