Efficient femtosecond high power Yb:Lu_2O_3 thin disk laser

Abstract
We demonstrate the first passively mode-locked thin disk laser based on Yb:Lu2O3. The laser generates 370-fs pulses with 20.5 W of average power in a diffraction-limited beam (M2<1.1). The nearly transform-limited pulses have a spectral bandwidth of 3.4 nm centered near 1034 nm. With slightly longer pulses (523 fs) we obtained 24 W of average power at a pump power of 56 W, resulting in an optical-to-optical efficiency of 43%, which is higher than for any previously mode-locked thin disk laser.