Lanthanum hexaboride coated D-shaped fibre for Q-switched pulse generation

A lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6)-coated D-shape fibre was successfully employed in an erbium-doped fibre laser cavity as a saturable absorber (SA) for pulse generation via the Q-switching mechanism. The Q-switched laser was obtained with an operation wavelength of 1561.4 nm within a pump power range between 82.0 and 97.6 mW. The maximum pulse rate of 57.41 kHz, minimum pulse duration of 4.49 mu s and maximum pulse energy of 73.94 nJ were obtained at a 97.6 mW pump. Our results indicate that LaB6 is a promising SA material used for generating a stable and low-cost pulsed laser.