Diode-pumped high-power sub-100 fs Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb:CaYAlO₄ laser with 185 MW peak power

Abstract

We demonstrated a diode-pumped high-power Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb:CaYAlO₄ (Yb:CALYO) laser with a dual-confocal cavity, directly generating 59-fs pulses with 6.2 W average power, which is the highest average power from any sub-60 fs Yb-doped solid-state lasers. With the repetition rate of 50 MHz, the corresponding single pulse energy was 124 nJ and the peak power was 1.85 MW, which to the best of our knowledge is the highest peak power delivered directly from a sub-100 fs Yb-based bulk lasers ever.