Antimonene nanosheets fabricated by laser irradiation technique with outstanding nonlinear absorption responses

Antimonene nanosheets are obtained by laser irradiation of antimony powder in isopropyl alcohol and the thicknesses of antimonene nanosheets are around 4–12 nm. The nonlinear optical responses of the samples are probed by a z-scan measurement employing a nanosecond laser pulse. The competition between saturable absorption and reverse saturable absorption at 532 nm is confirmed in the dispersion of antimonene nanosheets. The optical limiting (OL) onset fluence (FON) and the optical limiting threshold (FOL) of the antimonene are 0.162 J/cm2 and 1.37 J/cm2, respectively. Our finding not only provides an approach feasible for the fabrication of uniform antimonene nanosheets in ambient conditions but also manifests that antimonene has excellent optical responses making it promising for OL device applications.