Outstanding Broadband (532 nm to 2.2 μm) and Very Efficient Optical Limiting Performance of Some Defect-Engineered Graphenes.

Graphene derivatives and defect-engineered graphenes have attracted the interest of researchers owing to the excellent and tunable properties they exhibit. In this work the optical limiting performance of two defect-engineered boron- and nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxides is investigated. Both graphenes are found to exhibit exceptional and broadband optical limiting action ranging from 532 to 2200 nm. Their optical limiting efficiency was found to be superior to that of all the other graphene derivatives studied to date, exhibiting a gradually decreasing optical limiting onset, reaching the record low value of ∼0.002 J cm-2 at 2200 nm. The results demonstrate the potential of engineering the defects of such reduced graphene oxides, resulting in very broadband and efficient optical limiting graphene derivatives, showing a promising method to further tailor their optical and optoelectronic properties.