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We report on the first demonstration of a passively (SESAM) mode-locked Yb:CaF(2) thin-disk laser operating at a repetition rate of 35 MHz with close to diffraction-limited beam quality (M(2) ≈ 1.1) at an average output power of up to 6.6 W. The optical efficiency was 15.3%. Nearly transform limited pulses with a duration of 445 fs and a spectral width of 2.6 nm at full width half maximum (FWHM) were obtained at the maximum output power. This corresponds to a pulse-energy of approximately 0.19 μJ and a peak-power of 0.4 MW.

We present Ytterbium-doped CaF2 as a laser active material with good prospects for high-power operation in thin-disk laser configuration owing to its favorable thermal properties. Thanks to its broad emission bandwidth the material is also suitable for the generation of ultra-short pulses. The properties of the crystal as well as the challenges related to the coating, polishing, mounting and handling processes which are essential to achieve high power laser oscillation in thin-disk configuration are discussed. A wavelength tunability of 92 nm is demonstrated, which confirms the potential of Yb:CaF2 for the generation of ultra-short pulses. An output power of 250 W with an optical efficiency of η opt = 47% was measured in CW multimode thin-disk laser operation with a pump spot diameter of 3.6 mm. Using a smaller pump spot diameter of 1 mm the fundamental mode output power was 13 W with an optical efficiency of η opt = 34%.

Experimental investigations on a passively mode-locked Yb(3+):Sc(2)SiO(5) (Yb:SSO) thin-disk laser are presented. The mode-locking was performed with a commercially available semiconductor saturable absorber mirror. The laser was operated at a repetition rate of 27 MHz and generated a maximum average output power of 27.8 W with a pulse duration of 298 fs. The spectrum was centered at 1036 nm. The beam was measured to be close to diffraction limited (M(2)<1.1). The promising results confirm the suitability of Yb:SSO for mode-locked thin-disk laser oscillators and indicate that this comparably new material deserves further attention by optimizing the crystal quality (growth and polishing) and doping levels for further power scaling.

We present in this Letter experimental results of a Yb:Sc(2)SiO(5) (Yb:SSO) thin-disk laser. To our knowledge, this is the first lasing demonstration of this crystal in thin-disk configuration reported on to date. Preliminary tests regarding the characterization and the laser operation are presented. Two different resonator configurations, a simple linear multimode cavity, and a fundamental-mode folded resonator providing a double pass in the laser crystal were set up. The gain and the small signal gain of the available Yb:SSO sample were calculated using the experimental results of the multimode resonator. The operation in a fundamental-mode resonator with the double pass in the laser crystal led to 9.4 W of output power with an optical efficiency of 25.4%., (© 2012 Optical Society of America)

We report on a high power diode-pumped laser using multiple bulk Yb:KY(WO(4))(2) (KYW) crystals in a resonator optimised for this operation. From a dual-crystal resonator we obtain more than 24 W of cw-power in a TEM(00) mode limited by the available pump power. We also present results for semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) mode-locking in the soliton as well as positive dispersion regime with average output powers of 14.6 W and 17 W respectively.