Charge transfer in graphene oxide-dye system for photonic applications

The fluorescence of a standard dye Rhodamine 6G (R6G) in solution decreases on addition of reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The absorption spectra and lifetime measurements confirm that no excited-state but a ground-state complex formation is responsible for this effect. For silver decorated rGO (Ag-rGO), the quenching efficiency and ground state complex formation process is small. Z-scan measurements have been done to study the optical nonlinearity at 532 nm under ps time scale. Remarkable reduction in the saturable absorption (SA) effect of R6G indicates no nonlinear contribution from the ground state complex. The results have been explained with varying charge transfer rates and non-fluorescence nature of the complex.