HEMATENE (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 - Sci & Tech)

News-CRUX-10     27th July 2023        
QEP Pocket Notes

Context: Researchers has come up with a new and highly efficient optical limiter using a novel 2D material, ‘hematene’.


Key Points

  • Nanoflakes of a material called hematene extracted from iron ore have been found capable of withstanding and acting as shield from high laser intensities. 
  • Hence it could be used to make devices called optical limiters that can protect sensitive optical equipment from light-induced damage.
  • Radiation from laser sources is highly concentrated and powerful and can be detrimental to sensitive equipment such as sensors, detectors, and other optical devices. 
  • When the input intensity increases optical limiters control the amount of light that passes through, thereby preventing damage to the optical component. 
  • These devices are often useful in laser technologies, military, telecommunications, aircrafts, and scientific research in several ways.
  • Researchers found that 2D nanoflakes of hematene, a material extracted from iron ore or hematite are capable of withstanding very high laser intensities, and they exhibited excellent optical limiting of green laser light (532 nm) while maintaining a high linear transmission (about 87%) for low-intensity light.
  • The nanoflakes of lateral dimensions less than 10 nm, prepared by applying ultrasonic waves to hematite in liquid medium ( facile exfoliation process) for a definite period to exfoliate the 2D nanoflakes of hematene were also found to be highly stable after year-long storage under ambient conditions, indicating tremendous potential as an optical limiter for futuristic applications.
QEP Pocket Notes