A 1.78 μJ and 285fs Yb∶CaF_2 SESAM-modelocked thin-disk oscillator

摘要

We present a SESAM-modelocked Yb∶CaF_2 thin-disk laser designed for pulse durations below 300 fs and high peak powers of more than 5 MW. A cavity for fundamental mode operation (beam quality factor M~2 below 1.2) was set up and modelocked using a SESAM. An average output power of Up to 17.8 W was obtained at a repetition-rate of 10 MHz, corresponding to a pulse energy of approximately 1.8 μJ. The pulse duration was measured to be 285 fs, therefore a peak power of 5.5 MW was attained. Our research enables a comparison of the potential of Yb∶CaF_2 with other Yb-doped crystals with broad gain bandwidth in thin-disk laser technology. We conclude from our results that this gain material is very promising for high pulse energies and high peak powers.