Electro-optic Q-switched Yb:YAG thin disk laser with widely continuously tunable pulse width at a stable output of over 80 W

We report an electro-optic Q-switched Yb:YAG thin disk laser with widely continuously tunable pulse width ranging from 16.4 to 432.2 ns. The tunability was achieved through a simple and convenient method by rotating both the Pockels cell and the quarter-wave plate at either identical or slightly different angles. Based on the 72-pass pump module and 224.4 W laser diode pumping source, a pulsed output of over 80 W was attained at a repetition rate of 100 kHz. The output power and output pulse train remained stable in the whole tuning range. The corresponding output power was 82.7 W and 84.4 W for the minimum and maximum pulse width, respectively. A model which was exceedingly more accurate than previous models describing the tunability of the pulse width were proposed and the simulation results of this model exhibited strong agreement with the experimental measurements.