Optical limiting properties of graphene nanosheet/Si-Pb binary composite gel glasses

The Si-Pb binary composite gel glass was successfully prepared by sol-gel method using tetraethyl orthosilicate and lead acetate as precursors to introduce graphene nanosheets (GNSs) into the binary inorganic gel network. The morphology, structure, linear optics and nonlinear optical limiting properties of GNSs/Si-Pb binary composite gel glass were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, UV-visible absorption spectroscopy and open Z-scan technique. The results show that the GNSs can be successfully doped into the Si-Pb binary gel glass by the hydrolysis polycondensation of the precursor, and the obtained composite gel glass exhibits good uniformity and high transparency. The nonlinear optical limiting properties of GNSs have been significantly improved after incorporated into composite gel glass. Furthermore, the optical limiting properties of composite gel glass can be optimized by adjusting the concentration of GNSs in the glass. The above results provide an experimental basis and theoretical basis for expanding the materialization and deviceization of GNSs in the field of nonlinear optics.