First demonstration of passively mode-locked Yb:CaF2 thin-disk laser

Benjamin Dannecker; Xavier Délen; Katrin S. Wentsch; Birgit Weichelt; Clemens Hönninger; Andreas Voss; Marwan Abdou Ahmed; Thomas Graf

doi:10.1117/12.2079086

20 February 2015 First demonstration of passively mode-locked Yb:CaF₂ thin-disk laser

Benjamin Dannecker, Xavier Délen, Katrin S. Wentsch, Birgit Weichelt, Clemens Hönninger, Andreas Voss, Marwan Abdou Ahmed, Thomas Graf

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Proceedings Volume 9342, Solid State Lasers XXIV: Technology and Devices; 93420W (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2079086
Event: SPIE LASE, 2015, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

The need for ultra-short (sub-ps) pulsed laser systems with high power and high energy has advanced the mode-locked Ytterbium-doped thin-disk technology in the last decade. Therefore several research groups have made efforts to explore new laser crystals e.g. Yb:SSO, Yb:CAlGO or Yb:Lu₂O₃ for the generation of sub-500 fs pulses in thin-disk oscillators. Another promising and known candidate for ultra-short pulsed lasers is Yb:CaF₂, which has been so far only used in bulk laser architecture. In this work, we present the first demonstration of a mode-locked Yb:CaF₂ laser in thin-disk configuration. The resonator cavity was designed for eight passes through the disk per roundtrip at a repetition rate of 35 MHz. A saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) was used to obtain the soliton mode-locking. We achieved close-to transform-limited pulses with a pulse duration of less than 445 fs and an emission spectral width of 2.6 nm at FWHM (i.e. time-bandwidth product of 0.323). At the average output power of 6.6 W this corresponds to a peak-power of 430 kW and pulse energy of 190 nJ. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest average output power and pulse energy using Yb:CaF₂ as gain material reported to date. Taking into account the dispersion, self-phase modulation, pulse energy, output coupling ratio and laser gain, the pulse-duration estimated from the soliton-equation and our numerical calculations of pulse-propagation is in good agreement with the pulse-duration obtained in the experiment. Higher powers and shorter pulse-durations with this material are the subject of our future investigations.

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Benjamin Dannecker, Xavier Délen, Katrin S. Wentsch, Birgit Weichelt, Clemens Hönninger, Andreas Voss, Marwan Abdou Ahmed, and Thomas Graf "First demonstration of passively mode-locked Yb:CaF₂ thin-disk laser", Proc. SPIE 9342, Solid State Lasers XXIV: Technology and Devices, 93420W (20 February 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2079086

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KEYWORDS

Mode locking

Pulsed laser operation

Resonators

Modulation

Laser crystals

Laser applications

Mirrors

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