Broadband and enhanced nonlinear optical modulation characteristics of CuBTC for pulsed lasers

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) materials with sufficient charge mobility and promising structural flexibility are appealing for compact optoelectronic nano devices. In this work, the nonlinear optical features of the MOFs-CuBTC were comprehensively investigated for the first time. The CuBTC saturable absorbers were synthesized via liquid-phase exfoliation (LPE) method and characterized for the morphology and structure. The nonlinear optical response of CuBTC was characterized by employing an open-aperture Z-scan technique, which showed the great nonlinear optical modulation potential for the pulsed laser. Thereby, the CuBTC saturable absorber was implemented in the stable passively Q-switched lasers with the operating wavelengths at ∼1 and ∼2 µm to verify its broadband modulation properties, which produced the shortest pulse durations of 131 and 346 ns, respectively. These investigations confirmed that CuBTC can be a promising modulation device candidate for generating short laser pulses in wide spectral regions.