Vertically standing layered MoS_2 nanosheets on TiO_2 nanofibers for enhanced nonlinear optical property

Vertical layered MoS 2 nanosheets rooting into TiO 2 nanofibers were successfully prepared by a facile two-step method: prefabrication of porous TiO 2 nanofibers based on an electrospinning technique, and assembly of MoS 2 ultrathin nanosheets through a simple hydrothermal reaction. Significant enhancement of nonlinear optical response of the MoS 2 /TiO 2 nanocomposite was confirmed by an open-aperture z-scan measurement. The nanocomposite displayed strong optical limiting (OL) effects to ultrafast laser pulses with a low OL threshold of ~22.3 mJ/cm 2 , which is lower than that of pristine TiO 2 nanofibers and MoS 2 nanosheets. In addition to the contribution of the strong nonlinear absorption of MoS 2 nanosheets and TiO 2 nanofibers, such phenomenon is also attributed to the unique structure of vertically standing layered MoS 2 nanosheets on TiO 2 nanofibers with a large amount of exposed edge states, large surface areas and fast electron transfer between TiO 2 and MoS 2 . This work broadens our vision to engineering novel hierarchical MoS 2 -based nanocomposite for efficiently enhanced nonlinear light-matter interaction.