All-optical Ti3C2Tx modulator based on a sandwich structure

All-optical modulators based on MXene-Ti3C2Tx have recently garnered much attention due to their broadband light-matter interactions and its ultrafast carrier dynamics. To investigate the modulation characteristics of pump intensity and pump light modulation frequency, we establish an all-optical modulator with a sandwich structure based on MXene-Ti3C2Tx/PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) film. The result shows that this modulator can achieve a high modulation depth of 12.55 dB and a modulation frequency of 50 kHz corresponding to a response time at the microsecond scale. The successful preparation of the modulator is attributed to the saturable absorption characteristics of the MXene-Ti3C2Tx. This modulator has great potential in all-optical communications and ultrafast optical signal processing. (C) 2022 Optica Publishing Group