High peak power ultra-short pulse diode-pumped Yb:KGW lasers

Today, the development of a simple, compact and cost-effective laser source which is capable of generating powerful pulses is of importance for a variety of optical applications. The commercially available Yb:KGW laser crystal is a good candidate for high power regime due to its high thermal conductivity and for ultrashort pulse generation because of its broad gain bandwidth. First, the generation of watt-level sub-100 fs pulse generation was realized by using a quantum-dot semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (QD-SESAM) in a dual-action with the Kerr lensing effect. The high power laser was one of the highest among sub-100 fs diode-pumped bulk Yb-doped lasers. The laser also delivered the shortest pulses from monoclinic double tungstate crystals and also the most powerful in the sub-60 fs regime. Next, a watt-level pure Kerr-lens mode-locked (KLM) laser was realized for the first time with Yb:KGW laser crystal pumped by a multimode fibre-coupled laser diode.