Power scalability and beam quality of the thin disk laser

Summary form only given. The concept of the thin disk laser allows the realization of high-power lasers with high efficiency and good beam quality simultaneously. Experiments show that transition from multimode to fundamental mode operation can be achieved with only a slight reduction in optical efficiency. Scaling of output power up to 590 W using one disk and up to 1070 W using four disks has been demonstrated using the quasi-three-level material Yb:YAG as laser active medium. These experimental results are in good agreement with results of numerical simulations. Additionally, the thin disk laser concept is not only advantageous for operation of quasi-three-level materials, but has been demonstrated to be also suitable for four-level systems like Nd:YAG.