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, 201800, China.
Department of Electrical Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, 3200003, Israel.
Nat Commun. 2019 Sep 4;10(1):3985. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-11898-z.
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.
目前，碲作为一种具有潜在应用前景的纳米技术元素而备受关注，这是因为最近发现碲具有三种二维相和费米能级附近的外尔节点。在这里，我们报告了元素碲颗粒[Te(0)]的独特纳米光子特性，这些颗粒是从一种碲氧阴离子呼吸细菌的培养物中收获的。与化学形成的纳米材料相比，细菌形成的纳米晶体在测试的光子应用中证明是有效的，这表明了一种独特且环保的合成途径。对这种材料的非线性光学测量显示，在宽时间和波长范围内，由米氏散射引起的强饱和吸收和非线性光学消光。在这两种情况下，碲纳米颗粒表现出比石墨烯更好的光学非线性。我们证明了生物碲可用于各种光子应用，包括将其用作超快锁模器和全光开关的概念验证。
