Nonlinear optical properties of multilayer graphene in the infrared.

A negative value for the nonlinear refraction in graphene is experimentally observed and unambiguously verified by performing a theoretical analysis arising from the conductivity of the graphene monolayer. The nonlinear optical properties of multi-layer graphene are experimentally studied by employing the Z-scan technique. The measurements are carried out at 1150, 1550, 1900 and 2400 nm with a 100-femtosecond laser source. Under laser illumination the multi-layer graphene exhibits a transmittance increase due to saturable absorption, followed by optical limiting due to two-photon absorption. The saturation irradiance I-sat and the two-photon absorption coefficient beta are measured in the operating wavelength range. Furthermore, an irradiance-dependent nonlinear refraction is observed and discriminated from the conventional nonlinear refraction coefficient n(2), which is not irradiance dependent. The values obtained for the irradiance-dependent nonlinear refraction are in the order of similar to 10(-9) cm(2)W(-1), approximately 8 orders of magnitude larger than any bulk dielectrics. Published by The Optical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.