Broadband all-light-control with WS 2 coated microfibers

All-optical light amplitude tuning functionality is demonstrated in a layered tungsten disulfide (WS2) nanosheets coated microfiber (MF) structure. Due to the strong light-matter interactions between WS2 nanosheets and the evanescent field around the MF, a large variation in the transmitted power can be observed under both external and internal pump light excitations over a broadband spectrum (~100 nm). A power variation rate of ~0.3744 dB/mW is obtained under external violet pump light excitation, whereas the power variation rate of similar devices in the state of the art are usually less than 0.3 dB/mW. In terms of the response time, a moderate rise/fall time of ∼20.5/19.6 ms is achieved, which is mainly limited by the employed structure fabrication methods. These results indicate that the optical transmitted power of the WS2 coated MF can be modulated by different pump light with the power in the order of mW, thus the proposed device might have potential applications in all optical controllable devices and sensors, etc.