Linearly polarized, narrow-linewidth, and tunable Yb:YAG thin-disk laser

We report on the design, fabrication, and implementation of grating-waveguide structures (GWS) for intracavity polarization and wavelength selection as well as wavelength tuning. The GWS discussed in this Letter is a combination of a low-index leaky-mode waveguide, a subwavelength diffraction gratin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optics letters 2012-10, Vol.37 (20), p.4188-4190
Main Authors: Rumpel, Martin, Voss, Andreas, Moeller, Michael, Habel, Florian, Moormann, Christian, Schacht, Martin, Graf, Thomas, Ahmed, Marwan Abdou
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beams (radiation)
Density
Diffraction gratings
Gratings (spectra)
Lasers
Linear polarization
Tuning
Wavelengths
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Summary:We report on the design, fabrication, and implementation of grating-waveguide structures (GWS) for intracavity polarization and wavelength selection as well as wavelength tuning. The GWS discussed in this Letter is a combination of a low-index leaky-mode waveguide, a subwavelength diffraction grating, and a highly reflective mirror that was designed to operate in Littrow configuration. Using our device as the end mirror of an Yb:YAG thin-disk laser allowed the extraction of beams that exhibit an extremely narrow laser emission bandwidth of ≈25 pm FWHM and a high degree of linear polarization of 99±0.5%. Moreover, the GWS allows a wavelength tuning range from 1007 to 1053 nm. The high-power suitability and the low loss of the GWS was demonstrated by the intracavity use in an Yb:YAG thin-disk laser with an output power of 325 W in multimode operation (M(2)=6) and with 110 W in fundamental-mode operation (M(2)≈1.2), exhibiting optical efficiencies of 53.2% and 36.2%, respectively. An output power of 1.8 kW, corresponding to a power density of 125 kW/cm(2) on the grating, was achieved in further higher-power experiments.
ISSN:0146-9592
1539-4794
DOI:10.1364/OL.37.004188