The Physics of ultrafast saturable absorption in graphene

Abstract

The ultrafast saturable absorption in graphene is experimentally and theoretically investigated in the femtosecond (fs) time regime. This phenomenon is well-modeled with valence band depletion, conduction band filling and ultrafast intraband carrier thermalization. The latter is dominated by intraband carrier-carrier scattering with a scattering time of 8 ( +/- 3) fs, which is far beyond the time resolution of other ultrafast techniques with hundred fs laser pulses. Our results strongly suggest that graphene is an excellent atomic layer saturable absorber.