Abstract

We report on a Yb:YAG thin-disk laser with 1.1 kW output power and beam quality factor $M^2<1.4$ using a simple stable resonator comprising just a single cavity mirror and a single thin disk, without the use of any aspherical elements or any adaptive optics. An optical-to-optical efficiency of 40% was obtained. The cavity was designed to give good beam quality and low misalignment sensitivity to maintain stable and robust laser operation throughout the changes in the thin-disk curvature. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time an output power beyond 1 kW has been achieved from a single thin-disk laser in near fundamental mode operation ($M^2<1.4$).

© 2013 Optical Society of America

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