An Insightful Picture of Nonlinear Photonics in 2D Materials and their Applications: Recent Advances and Future Prospects

The nonlinear optical (NLO) materials are playing a crucial role in almost all aspects of photonics including imaging frequency, manipulation, photon generation, transmission and detection. The nonlinear optics aims to investigate light response in NLO media, in which the NLO response is normally weak and low energy efficient. A comprehensive summary, discussion, and correlation of the light–matter interaction in the 2D nano-platform, like graphene and TMDCs, would be inspirational and timely needed. In this contribution, a broad overview and discussion about recent experimental evolution regarding the NLO response and its corresponding applications in various 2D materials are presented. A wide material library including graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, black phosphorus, MXenes, semimetals, polymer materials, and hybrid structures (0D, 1D, 3D) are discussed. In this review, the qualitative description of NLO is firstly illustrated, followed by various fundamental NLO processes being highlighted. Fundamental limits of nonlinear optics and some of NLO applications are prospected. It is hoped that this comprehensive review will shed a light on the development of nonlinear optics with 2D materials to be applied in the field of photonics and optoelectronics.