F. Brunner

60-W average power in 810-fs pulses from a thin-disk Yb:YAG laser.

We demonstrate a passively mode-locked diode-pumped thin-disk Yb:YAG laser generating 810-fs pulses at 1030 nm with as much as 60 W of average output power (without using an amplifier). At a pulse repetition rate of 34.3 MHz, the pulse energy is 1.75 microJ and the peak power is as high as 1.9 MW. The beam quality is close to the diffraction limit, with M2 < 1.1.

240-fs pulses with 22-W average power from a mode-locked thin-disk Yb:KY(WO 4 ) 2 laser

We demonstrate what is to our knowledge the first passively mode-locked thin-disk Yb:KY(WO(4))(2) laser. The laser produces pulses of 240-fs duration with an average power of 22 W at a center wavelength of 1028 nm. At a pulse repetition rate of 25 MHz, the pulse energy is 0.9microJ , and the peak power is as high as 3.3 MW. The beam quality is very close to the diffraction limit, with M(2)=1.1 .

Diode-pumped femtosecond Yb:KGd(WO 4 ) 2 laser with 1.1-W average power

We demonstrate what is to our knowledge the first mode-locked Yb:KGd(WO(4))(2) laser. Using a semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror for passive mode locking, we obtain pulses of 176-fs duration with an average power of 1.1 W and a peak power of 64 kW at a center wavelength of 1037 nm. We achieve pulses as short as 112 fs at a lower output power. The laser is based on a standard delta cavity and pumped by two high-brightness laser diodes, making the whole system very simple and compact. Tuning the laser by means of a knife-edge results in mode-locked pulses within a wavelength range from 1032 to 1054 nm. In cw operation, we achieve output powers as high as 1.3 W.

Nonlinear femtosecond pulse compression at high average power levels by use of a large-mode-area holey fiber

We demonstrate that nonlinear fiber compression is possible at unprecedented average power levels by use of a large-mode-area holey (microstructured) fiber and a passively mode-locked thin disk Yb:YAG laser operating at 1030 nm. We broaden the optical spectrum of the 810-fs pump pulses by nonlinear propagation in the fiber and remove the resultant chirp with a dispersive prism pair to achieve 18 W of average power in 33-fs pulses with a peak power of 12 MW and a repetition rate of 34 MHz. The output beam is nearly diffraction limited and is linearly polarized.

Femtosecond pulse generation with a diode-pumped Yb3+:YVO4 laser.

A diode-pumped Yb:YVO4 laser has been passively mode locked for the first time, to our knowledge. 120 fs pulses with an average output power of 300 mW and a peak power as high as 14.5 kW are obtained by use of a semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror for passive mode locking. The optical spectrum has a 10 nm bandwidth (full width at half-maximum) and is centered at 1021 nm.

High-power femtosecond fiber-feedback optical parametric oscillator based on periodically poled stoichiometric LiTaO3

We demonstrate a synchronously pumped high-gain optical parametric oscillator with feedback through a fiber, using a passively mode-locked Yb:YAG thin-disk laser as a pump source. We obtain as much as 19-W average signal power at a wavelength of 1.45 microm in 840-fs pulses and 7.8 W of idler power at 3.57 microm. The repetition rate of the pulses is 56 MHz, and the transverse beam quality of the generated signal is M2 < 1.6.

Widely tunable pulse durations from a passively mode-locked thin-disk Yb:YAG laser

We demonstrate a passively mode-locked thin-disk Yb:YAG laser that generates solitonlike pulses with durations that are continuously tunable in a very wide range from 3.3 to 89 ps or from 0.83 to 1.57 ps. The average powers are typically ~12 W . Previously [Opt. Lett. 25, 859 (2000)], only pulse durations in a narrow range near 0.7 ps could be obtained from such lasers because of the effect of spatial hole burning. We achieved this much wider range by constructing a laser cavity with two different angles of incidence on the thin disk, which greatly reduces the effect of spatial hole burning.

High-power femtosecond nonlinear devices pumped with a mode-locked thin disk laser

We report on experiments with high-power femtosecond pulses from a passively mode-locked thin disk Yb:YAG laser: nonlinear fiber compression to 33 fs with 18 W average power and a fiber-feedback parametric oscillator generating 15 W in the 1.5-/spl mu/m region.

60-W average power in 810-fs pulses from a thin-disk Yb:YAG laser

We demonstrate a passively mode-locked diode-pumped thin-disk Yb:YAG laser generating 810-fs pulses at 1030 nm with as much as 60 W of average output power (without using an amplifier). At a pulse repetition rate of 34.3 MHz, the pulse energy is 1.75 µJ and the peak power is as high as 1.9 MW. The beam quality is close to the diffraction limit, with M 2 < 1.1.

240-fs pulses with 22-W average power from a passively mode-locked thin-disk Yb:KY(WO/sub 4/)/sub 2/ laser

Summary form only given. Femtosecond lasers with high average output power are of great interest for numerous applications such as simple and efficient nonlinear frequency conversion or multi-photon spectroscopy. Such lasers can be realized by combining a diode-pumped thin-disk laser head with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) for passive mode locking. In this paper we present the first passively mode-locked thin-disk laser which is based on the novel gain medium Yb:KY(WO/sub 4/)/sub 2/ (Yb:KYW). This laser crystal has a larger amplification bandwidth than Yb:YAG and is therefore suitable for significantly shorter pulses. We obtained 240-fs pulses at 1028 nm with 22-W average power and 3.3-MW peak power. The pulse repetition rate is 24.6 MHz, and the pulse energy is 0.9 /spl mu/J. The beam quality is close to the diffraction limit, with M/sup 2/ = 1.1. Focusing the beam to a spot diameter of 2 /spl mu/m would result in a peak intensity of 2 /spl middot/ 10/sup 14/ Wcm/sup -2/.