High-efficiency 100-W Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb:YAG thin-disk oscillator

We demonstrate a Kerr-lens mode-locked femtosecond Yb:YAG thin-disk oscillator and investigate the approach to increase the optical-to-optical efficiency based on the scheme of direct multiple passes of the laser beam through the thin-disk medium. With twelve passes through the thin disk, 266-fs pulses were delivered from the oscillator with an average power of 105.6 W at a repetition rate of 20 MHz. The corresponding optical-to-optical efficiency is 31.1%, which is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest efficiency of any mode-locked thin-disk oscillator with pulse duration below 300 fs. This demonstration paves the way to even more efficient mode-locked femtosecond thin-disk oscillators, and provides an excellent laser source for the applications such as non-linear frequency conversion and high-precision industrial processing.

我们展示了一个克尔透镜锁模的飞秒Yb:YAG薄盘振荡器，并研究了基于激光束直接多次穿过薄盘介质的方案来提高光 - 光效率的方法。激光束经过薄盘12次后，该振荡器输出了平均功率为105.6 W、重复频率为20 MHz的266飞秒脉冲。相应的光 - 光效率为31.1%，据我们所知，这是脉冲持续时间低于300飞秒的所有锁模薄盘振荡器中的最高效率。这一成果为制造更高效的锁模飞秒薄盘振荡器铺平了道路，并为非线性频率转换和高精度工业加工等应用提供了一种出色的激光源。