Spatial hole burning prevents single-frequency operation of thin-disk laserswhen the thin disk is used as a folding mirror. We present an evaluation of thesaturation effects in the disk for disks acting as end-mirrors and asfolding-mirrors explaining one of the main obstacles towards single-frequencyoperation. It is shown that a twisted-mode scheme based on a multi-orderquarter-wave plate combined with a polarizer provides an almost completesuppression of spatial hole burning and creates an additional wavelengthselectivity that enforces efficient single-frequency operation.
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