Dear Colleagues,

Nanoscale materials, so-called nanomaterials, including superlattice quantum wells, quantum wires and dots, have unique quantum natures which can increase or improve not only optical, thermal, mechanical, chemical and electrical properties of materials, but also photonic and photoelectronic properties due to their larger surface-to-volume ratio, high-density surface states and quantum size-induced splitting of energy bands. In recent decades, the advent of new two-dimensional materials, such as graphene, transition metal-dichalcogenides (TMDCs), black phosphorus and topological insulators etc., has enriched the selection of available nanoscale materials. Nanomaterials have been widely used in chemical catalysis, solar cells, biomedicine, nonlinear optics, ultrafast photonic and photoelectronic devices etc. Application examples include the generation of ultrashort laser pulses based on nanomaterials’ saturable absorption mode-locking and ultrafast graphene photodetectors. Many new ultrafast phenomena have emerged in novel nanomaterials, such as ultrafast transport of photocarriers in graphene, valley spin relaxation in TMDCs, and interlayer exciton relaxation in 2D heterostructures. For the development of ultrafast photonic, photoelectronic and spintronic devices, it is crucial that the ultrafast optical nonlinear response and dynamics of photocarriers, phonon, spin, and their interactions are understood.

This Special Issue is focused on advances in the optical nonlinearity and ultrafast photonic and photoelectronic dynamics of nanoscale and two-dimensional materials. Main topics include:

(1) the characterization of optical nonlinearity and the synthesis of novel nanomaterials;

(2) the generation of ultrashort laser pulses and/or ultrawide-bandwidth frequency combs based on the saturable absorption of nanomaterials;

(3) novel ultrafast and ultrahigh spatiotemporal resolved spectroscopy for the dynamic mapping of nanomaterials;

(4) ultrafast dynamics of photocarriers, phonons and/or spin, as well as their interactions in nanomaterials;

(5) nanomaterial-based ultrafast photodetectors with or without a bias voltage;

(6) ultrafast electron and/or spin transport dynamics in 2D heterostructures.

Prof. Dr. Tianshu Lai
Guest Editor

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• nanomaterials
• two-dimensional materials
• optical nonlinearity
• ultrafast photonics
• ultrafast dynamics
• ultrafast photodetection
• electron and spin transport