Passively Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser based on antimonene as saturable absorber.

A passively ${Q}$-switched erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser based on antimonene saturable absorber is exclusively and systematically demonstrated. Few-layer antimonene nanosheets are prepared and a passively ${Q}$-switched EDF laser based on the saturable absorption feature of antimonene is implemented. The pulse repetition rate varies from 25.3 to 76.7 kHz when the pump power changes from 41 to 345 mW. The shortest pulse duration is 1.58 µs with pulse energy of 37.9 nJ. The experiment displays some new characteristics, which indicates that there is still much work to do before the mechanism of saturable absorption characteristics of antimonene is completely revealed.