High-power Yb:GGG thin-disk laser oscillator: first demonstration and power-scaling prospects.

We present the first demonstration of a thin-disk laser based on the gain material Yb:GGG. This material has many desirable properties for the thin-disk geometry: a high thermal conductivity, which is nearly independent of the doping concentration, a low quantum defect, low-temperature growth, and a broadband absorption spectrum, making it a promising contender to the well-established Yb:YAG for high-power applications. In continuous wave laser operation, we demonstrate output powers above 50 W, which is an order of magnitude higher than previously achieved with this material in the bulk geometry. We compare this performance with an Yb:YAG disk under identical pumping conditions and find comparable output characteristics (with typical optical-to-optical slope efficiencies >66%). Additionally, with the help of finite-element-method simulations, we show the advantageous heat-removal capabilities of Yb:GGG compared to Yb:YAG, resulting in >50% lower thermal lensing for thin Yb:GGG disks compared to Yb:YAG disks. The equivalent optical performance of the two crystals in combination with the easy growth and the significant thermal benefits of Yb:GGG show the large potential of future high-power thin-disk amplifiers and lasers based on this material, both for industrial and scientific applications.

Peak-power scaling of femtosecond Yb:Lu2O3 thin-disk lasers.

We present a high-peak-power SESAM-modelocked thin-disk laser (TDL) based on the gain material Yb-doped lutetia (Yb:Lu2O3), which exceeds a peak-power of 10 MW for the first time. We generate pulses as short as 534 fs with an average power of 90 W and a peak power of 10.1 MW, and in addition a peak power as high as 12.3 MW with 616-fs pulses and 82-W average power. The center lasing wavelength is 1033 nm and the pulse repetition rates are around 10 MHz. We discuss and explain the current limitations with numerical models, which show that the current peak power is limited in soliton modelocking by the interplay of the gain bandwidth and the induced absorption in the SESAM with subsequent thermal lensing effects. We use our numerical model which is validated by the current experimental results to discuss a possible road map to scale the peak power into the 100-MW regime and at the same time reduce the pulse duration further to sub-200 fs. We consider Yb:Lu2O3 as currently the most promising gain material for the combination of high peak power and short pulse duration in the thin-disk-laser geometry.

Extreme ultraviolet light source at a megahertz repetition rate based on high-harmonic generation inside a mode-locked thin-disk laser oscillator.

We demonstrate a compact extreme ultraviolet (XUV) source based on high-harmonic generation (HHG) driven directly inside the cavity of a mode-locked thin-disk laser oscillator. The laser is directly diode-pumped at a power of only 51 W and operates at a wavelength of 1034 nm and a 17.35 MHz repetition rate. We drive HHG in a high-pressure xenon gas jet with an intracavity peak intensity of 2.8×1013 W/cm2 and 320 W of intracavity average power. Despite the high-pressure gas jet, the laser operates at high stability. We detect harmonics up to the 17th order (60.8 nm, 20.4 eV) and estimate a flux of 2.6×108 photons/s for the 11th harmonic (94 nm, 13.2 eV). Due to the power scalability of the thin-disk concept, this class of compact XUV sources has the potential to become a versatile tool for areas such as attosecond science, XUV spectroscopy, and high-resolution imaging.

Improved SESAMs for femtosecond pulse generation approaching the kW average power regime.

We present semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs) that can potentially support femtosecond pulses from ultrafast thin disk lasers (TDLs) with high average power approaching the kW-power level and high pulse energy in the range of 100 µJ to 1 mJ at megahertz pulse repetition rates. For high-power operation, the SESAM parameters will ultimately limit the shortest pulse duration from a soliton mode-locked laser before mode locking instabilities such as multiple pulsing instabilities and continuous wave (cw) breakthrough start to occur. Currently shorter pulses are prevented due to the inverse saturable absorption that becomes stronger with shorter pulses and results in a shift of the "rollover" of the nonlinear SESAM reflectivity towards lower fluences. Here we discuss a novel SESAM design that addresses these issues and can be grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE), an attractive epitaxial growth technology for manufacturing.

Optimized SESAMs for kilowatt-level ultrafast lasers.

We present a thorough investigation of surface deformation and thermal properties of high-damage threshold large-area semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs) designed for kilowatt average power laser oscillators. We compare temperature rise, thermal lensing, and surface deformation of standard SESAM samples and substrate-removed SESAMs contacted using different techniques. We demonstrate that for all cases the thermal effects scale linearly with the absorbed power, but the contacting technique critically affects the strength of the temperature rise and the thermal lens of the SESAMs (i.e. the slope of the linear change). Our best SESAMs are fabricated using a novel substrate-transfer direct bonding technique and show excellent surface flatness (with non-measureable radii of curvature (ROC), compared to astigmatic ROCs of up to 10 m for standard SESAMs), order-of-magnitude improved heat removal, and negligible deformation with absorbed power. This is achieved without altering the saturation behavior or the recovery parameters of the samples. These SESAMs will be a key enabling component for the next generation of kilowatt-level ultrafast oscillators.