Yb:CaGdAlO4 thin disk laser with 70% slope efficiency

摘要

In the last decades high power ultrafast lasers have attracted considerable attention for many applications e.g. in biology, chemistry, physics, and medicine [1]. The most promising approach to get high power ultrashort pulses directly from an oscillator is a modelocked thin disk laser (TDL) using a broadband gain material. For this purpose, Yb-doped materials are very suitable since their simple energy-level scheme allows for highly efficient laser operation and the strong electron-phonon coupling results in broad spectra. In addition, to maintain efficient cooling a high thermal conductivity is required which often stands in contradiction to a very broad spectrum.