Passively mode-locked Yb3+:Sc2SiO5 thin-disk laser

Experimental investigations on a passively mode-locked Yb3+: Sc2SiO5 (Yb:SSO) thin-disk laser are presented. The mode-locking was performed with a commercially available semiconductor saturable absorber mirror. The laser was operated at a repetition rate of 27 MHz and generated a maximum average output power of 27.8 W with a pulse duration of 298 fs. The spectrum was centered at 1036 nm. The beam was measured to be close to diffraction limited (M-2 < 1.1). The promising results confirm the suitability of Yb: SSO for mode-locked thin-disk laser oscillators and indicate that this comparably new material deserves further attention by optimizing the crystal quality (growth and polishing) and doping levels for further power scaling. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America