{"database":"biostudies-literature","file_versions":[],"scores":null,"additional":{"submitter":["Vermeulen N"],"funding":["European Commission (EC)","European Research Council","Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Research Foundation Flanders)"],"pagination":["2675"],"full_dataset_link":["https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC6041291"],"repository":["biostudies-literature"],"omics_type":["Unknown"],"volume":["9(1)"],"pubmed_abstract":["Graphene is considered a record-performance nonlinear-optical material on the basis of numerous experiments. The observed strong nonlinear response ascribed to the refractive part of graphene's electronic third-order susceptibility χ<sup>(3)</sup> cannot, however, be explained using the relatively modest χ<sup>(3)</sup> value theoretically predicted for the 2D material. Here we solve this long-standing paradox and demonstrate that, rather than χ<sup>(3)</sup>-based refraction, a complex phenomenon which we call saturable photoexcited-carrier refraction is at the heart of nonlinear-optical interactions in graphene such as self-phase modulation. Saturable photoexcited-carrier refraction is found to enable self-phase modulation of picosecond optical pulses with exponential-like bandwidth growth along graphene-covered waveguides. Our theory allows explanation of these extraordinary experimental results both qualitatively and quantitatively. It also supports the graphene nonlinearities measured in previous self-phase modulation and self-(de)focusing (Z-scan) experiments. This work signifies a paradigm shift in the understanding of 2D-material nonlinearities and finally enables their full exploitation in next-generation nonlinear-optical devices."],"journal":["Nature communications"],"pubmed_title":["Graphene's nonlinear-optical physics revealed through exponentially growing self-phase modulation."],"pmcid":["PMC6041291"],"funding_grant_id":["336940","604391","618086","GA00213N","G0F6218N"],"pubmed_authors":["Ciuk T","Krajewska A","Strupinski W","Khoder M","Castello-Lurbe D","Pasternak I","Van Erps J","Vermeulen N","Cheng J","Thienpont H"],"additional_accession":[]},"is_claimable":false,"name":"Graphene's nonlinear-optical physics revealed through exponentially growing self-phase modulation.","description":"Graphene is considered a record-performance nonlinear-optical material on the basis of numerous experiments. The observed strong nonlinear response ascribed to the refractive part of graphene's electronic third-order susceptibility χ<sup>(3)</sup> cannot, however, be explained using the relatively modest χ<sup>(3)</sup> value theoretically predicted for the 2D material. Here we solve this long-standing paradox and demonstrate that, rather than χ<sup>(3)</sup>-based refraction, a complex phenomenon which we call saturable photoexcited-carrier refraction is at the heart of nonlinear-optical interactions in graphene such as self-phase modulation. Saturable photoexcited-carrier refraction is found to enable self-phase modulation of picosecond optical pulses with exponential-like bandwidth growth along graphene-covered waveguides. Our theory allows explanation of these extraordinary experimental results both qualitatively and quantitatively. It also supports the graphene nonlinearities measured in previous self-phase modulation and self-(de)focusing (Z-scan) experiments. This work signifies a paradigm shift in the understanding of 2D-material nonlinearities and finally enables their full exploitation in next-generation nonlinear-optical devices.","dates":{"release":"2018-01-01T00:00:00Z","publication":"2018 Jul","modification":"2025-04-04T18:42:11.483Z","creation":"2019-03-26T23:46:16Z"},"accession":"S-EPMC6041291","cross_references":{"pubmed":["29992967"],"doi":["10.1038/s41467-018-05081-z"]}}