Abstract

Elementary tellurium is currently of great interest as an element with potential promise in nano-technology applications because of the recent discovery regarding its three two-dimensional phases and the existence of Weyl nodes around its Femi level. Here, we report on the unique nano-photonic properties of elemental tellurium particles [Te(0)], as harvest from a culture of a tellurium-oxyanion respiring bacteria. The bacterially-formed nano-crystals prove effective in the photonic applications tested compared to the chemically-formed nano-materials, suggesting a unique and environmentally friendly route of synthesis. Nonlinear optical measurements of this material reveal the strong saturable absorption and nonlinear optical extinctions induced by Mie scattering over broad temporal and wavelength ranges. In both cases, Te-nanoparticles exhibit superior optical nonlinearity compared to graphene. We demonstrate that biological tellurium can be used for a variety of photonic applications which include their proof-of-concept for employment as ultrafast mode-lockers and all-optical switches.

Details

Title
Bacterially synthesized tellurium nanostructures for broadband ultrafast nonlinear optical applications
Author
Wang, Kangpeng 1 ; Zhang, Xiaoyan 2 ; Kislyakov, Ivan M 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Dong, Ningning 2 ; Zhang, Saifeng 2 ; Wang, Gaozhong 3 ; Fan, Jintai 2 ; Zou, Xiao 4 ; Du, Juan 4 ; Leng, Yuxin 4 ; Zhao, Quanzhong 4 ; Wu, Kan 5 ; Chen, Jianping 5 ; Baesman, Shaun M 6 ; Kang-Shyang Liao 7 ; Maharjan, Surendra 7 ; Zhang, Hongzhou 8 ; Zhang, Long 9 ; Curran, Seamus A 7 ; Oremland, Ronald S 6 ; Blau, Werner J 8   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Wang, Jun 9 

 Laboratory of Micro-Nano Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, Laboratory of Laser and Infrared Materials, Key Laboratory of Materials for High-Power Laser, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China; Department of Electrical Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel 
 Laboratory of Micro-Nano Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, Laboratory of Laser and Infrared Materials, Key Laboratory of Materials for High-Power Laser, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China 
 Laboratory of Micro-Nano Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, Laboratory of Laser and Infrared Materials, Key Laboratory of Materials for High-Power Laser, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China; School of Physics, CRANN and AMBER Research Centres, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland 
 State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, CAS Center for Excellence in Ultra-intense Laser Science, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China 
 State Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Communication Systems and Networks, Department of Electronic Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China 
 US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA, USA 
 Institute for NanoEnergy, Department of Physics, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA 
 School of Physics, CRANN and AMBER Research Centres, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland 
 Laboratory of Micro-Nano Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, Laboratory of Laser and Infrared Materials, Key Laboratory of Materials for High-Power Laser, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China; State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, CAS Center for Excellence in Ultra-intense Laser Science, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China; Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China 
Pages
1-10
Publication year
2019
Publication date
Sep 2019
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2284611191
Copyright
© 2019. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.