CW laser operation and first mode-locked laser operation of Yb:LuAG ceramic are reported. Efficient CW laser operation was obtained with maximum output power of 2.14 W and a 72% slope efficiency. Femtosecond mode-locked laser operation was achieved with pulse duration of 699 fs and a 200 mW average output power.
Yb:LuAG is a promising gain medium for high-power lasers due to its high thermal conductivity and large emission cross section. Although narrowband gain media such as Yb:LuAG are not considered to be suitable for the generation of sub-100 fs pulses, we have achieved generation of 91 fs pulses with Yb:LuAG ceramic by the Kerr-lens mode-locking (KLM) technique. The obtained average power, pulse energy, and peak power were 1.64 W, 20.0 nJ, and 220 kW, respectively. These are, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of KLM and the new records based on both Yb:LuAG ceramic and single crystal.
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