title: 275 W average output power from a femtosecond thin disk oscillator operated in a vacuum environment.
abstract: We present an ultrafast thin disk laser that generates an average output power of 275 W, which is higher than any other modelocked laser oscillator. It is based on the gain material Yb:YAG and operates at a pulse duration of 583 fs and a repetition rate of 16.3 MHz resulting in a pulse energy of 16.9 μJ and a peak power of 25.6 MW. A SESAM designed for high damage threshold initiated and stabilized soliton modelocking. We reduced the nonlinearity of the atmosphere inside the cavity by several orders of magnitude by operating the oscillator in a vacuum environment. Thus soliton modelocking was achieved at moderate amounts of self-phase modulation and negative group delay dispersion. Our approach opens a new avenue for power scaling femtosecond oscillators to the kW level.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Institute for Quantum Electronics, ETH Zurich, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Clara J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Saraceno
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Emaury
authors.forename: Oliver H
authors.initials: OH
authors.lastname: Heckl
authors.forename: Cyrill R E
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Baer
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hoffmann
authors.forename: Cinia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schriber
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Golling
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Südmeyer
authors.forename: Ursula
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Keller
mesh_terms: D000669:Amplifiers, Electronic; D004735:Energy Transfer; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007834:Lasers; D008904:Miniaturization; D009991:Oscillometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014618:Vacuum