Multihundred-watt diode-pumped Yb:YAG thin disc laser

The qualification of the thin disc laser concept for obtaining output powers in the multi-hundred watt class with good beam quality and high efficiency simultaneously is presented.The output power is scalable by increasing the pumped area at constant pump power density. Output powers of up to 255 W in multimode operation, diffraction limited beam quality as well as single frequency operation with output powers up to 28 W are presented.