Femtosecond thin disk laser oscillator with pulse energy beyond the 10-microjoule level

We report on a passively mode-locked Yb:YAG thin disk laser oscillator that generates 11.3-mu J pulses without the use of any additional external amplification. A repetition rate of 4 MHz is obtained using a 23.4-m-long multiple-pass cavity that extends the resonator length to a total of 37 m. The nearly transform-limited pulses at 45 W of average output power have a duration of 791 fs with a 1.56-nm-broad spectrum centered at 1030 nm. The laser is operated in a helium atmosphere to eliminate the air nonlinearity inside the resonator that previously limited the pulse energy. (c) 2008 Optical Society of America.