Graphene photonics breakthrough promises fast-speed, low-cost communications

Swinburne researchers have developed a high-quality continuous graphene oxide thin film that shows potential for ultrafast telecommunications.

Associate Professor Baohua Jia led a team of researchers from Swinburne’s Centre for Micro-Photonics to create a micrometre thin film with record-breaking optical nonlinearity suitable for high performance integrated photonic devices used in all-optical communications, biomedicine and photonic computing.

“Such a laser patternable highly nonlinear thin film, about one hundredth of a human hair, has not been achieved by any other material,” Professor Jia said.

Graphene is derived from carbon, the fourth most abundant element on earth. It has many useful properties, including light transparency and electrical conductivity, and can be completely recycled.

To create the thin film the researchers spin coated graphene oxide solution to a glass surface.

High-quality continuous (GO) thin films are prepared by a self-assembly method. Z-scan measurements during the laser-induced reduction process unveil in situ nonlinear responses in the GO film. Third-order nonlinear responses of the GO film can be tuned dynamically by varying the laser input fluence. GO thin films with tunable nonlinear responses and versatile patterning opportunities by using direct laser writing may serve as promising solid-state materials for novel nonlinear functional devices.

Advanced Materials – In Situ Third-Order Non-linear Responses During Laser Reduction of Graphene Oxide Thin Films Towards On-Chip Non-linear Photonic Devices

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