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In this study we demonstrate the suitability of Hollow-Core Photonic Crystal Fibers (HC-PCF) for multiwatt average power pulse compression. We spectrally broadened picosecond pulses from a SESAM mode-locked thin disk laser in a xenon gas filled Kagome-type HC-PCF and compressed these pulses to below 250 fs with a hypocycloid-core fiber and 470 fs with a single cell core defect fiber. The compressed average output power of 7.2 W and 10.2 W at a pulse repetition rate of approximately 10 MHz corresponds to pulse energies of 0.7 µJ and 1 µJ and to peak powers of 1.6 MW and 1.7 MW, respectively. Further optimization of the fiber parameters should enable pulse compression to below 50 fs duration at substantially higher pulse energies., (© 2011 Optical Society of America)

We report on two pulse compressors for a high-power thin disk laser oscillator using rod-type fiber amplifiers. Both systems are seeded by a standard SESAM modelocked thin disk laser that delivers 16 W of average power at a repetition rate of 10.6 MHz with a pulse energy of 1.5 μJ and a pulse duration of 1 ps. We discuss two results with different fiber parameters with different trade-offs in pulse duration, average power, damage and complexity. The first amplifier setup consists of a Yb-doped fiber amplifier with a 2200 μm2 core area and a length of 55 cm, resulting in a compressed average power of 55 W with 98-fs pulses at a repetition rate of 10.6 MHz. The second system uses a shorter 36-cm fiber with a larger core area of 4500 μm2. In a stretcher-free configuration we obtained 34 W of compressed average power and 65-fs pulses. In both cases peak powers of > 30 MW were demonstrated at several μJ pulse energies. The power scaling limitations due to damage and self-focusing are discussed.

Yb:YCOB is a very attractive material for femtosecond pulse generation given its broad emission bandwidth. We demonstrate continuous-wave power scaling in the thin disk geometry to the 100-W level with a 40% optical-to-optical efficiency in multi-mode operation. Furthermore, we present initial modelocking results in the thin disk geometry, achieving pulse durations as short as 270 fs. The modelocked average power is, however, limited to less than 5 W because of transverse mode degradation. This is caused by anisotropic thermal aberrations in the 15% Yb-doped thin disks which were 300 to 400 µm thick. This result confirms the potential of Yb:YCOB to generate short femtosecond pulses in the thin disk geometry but also makes clear that significantly thinner disks are required to overcome the thermal limitations for high power operation.

We demonstrate the first passively mode-locked thin disk laser based on Yb:Lu(2)O(3). The laser generates 370-fs pulses with 20.5 W of average power in a diffraction-limited beam (M(2) < 1.1). The nearly transform-limited pulses have a spectral bandwidth of 3.4 nm centered near 1034 nm. With slightly longer pulses (523 fs) we obtained 24 W of average power at a pump power of 56 W, resulting in an optical-to-optical efficiency of 43%, which is higher than for any previously mode-locked thin disk laser.