According to the team, black phosphorous is a particularly interesting post-graphene nanomaterial for next generation photonic and optoelectronic devices. Yet despite remarkable performance in the lab, practical real-world exploitation of this material has been hindered by complex material fabrication and poor environmental stability.
"Our inkjet printing demonstration makes possible for the first time the scalable mass fabrication of black phosphorous based photonic and optoelectronic devices with long-term stability necessary for a wide range of industrial applications,” said Professor Zhipei Sun at Aalto University.
The scientists optimised the chemical composition to achieve a stable ink through the balance of complex and competing fluidic effects.
The researchers claim black phosphorous' semiconducting bandgap can be readily varied by engineering the number of atomic layers and can cover the visible and near-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The researchers also demonstrated printed black phosphorous based nonlinear optical devices that can be inserted into lasers to act as ultra-quick optical shutters, converting a continuous beam of laser radiation into a repetitive series of very short bursts of light suited for industrial and medical applications, such as machining, imaging and sensing.
According to the researchers, the black phosphorous could act as an efficient and highly-responsive detector of light, extending the wavelength range over which conventional silicon-based photodetectors can operate.
